Secord Road in Dill Township off Highway 69 south of Sudbury is usually quiet.
But an incident Monday morning has residents in this remote area between Wanup and Estaire on edge.
Lillian Russell was reported missing by the Sudbury detachment of the OPP on Aug. 21 after she failed to show up for work.
But her story took a bizarre turn today when it emerged that, after she made it back home at around 9 p.m. on the night of her disappearance, police determined that she had been the victim of a home invasion early that morning.
A neighbour who lives down the road from Russell and who spoke to Sudbury.com on condition of anonymity was able to fill in more details.
He says he happened upon a vehicle parked along the road Monday during his regular morning walk, at around 7:30 a.m.
The car's windows were rolled down and, seeing no one else around, he assumed it had broken down and continued along.
On his way back, finding that the car was still there, he looked closer.
That's when he says he discovered a set of keys, a watch, and what he called a kitchen knife on the ground near the car. Across the road, he found a woman's handbag in the ditch.
That's when he called police and learned that the car belonged to his neighbour, Lillian Russell, who lives down the road on a property she and her partner share with her mother.
Sudbury.com has not yet confirmed the information provided by the neighbour with OPP investigators.
The OPP canine unit, Emergency Response Team and a helicopter unit assisted in what turned out to be a fruitless search for Russell on Monday.
The neighbour says a relative of Lillian Russell told him that she emerged from the bush that surrounds Secord road after dark Monday night and made it back to her home.
