A woman who was found wandering early Thursday in the town of Greene has been tentatively identified as Jessica Green, a 41-year-old transient who had been in Augusta until this week, the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office said Friday night.

The identification is based mostly on the report of an Augusta police officer, who said he encountered Green earlier this summer. The Augusta officer told the sheriff’s office that she identified herself and told him that she was originally from Wisconsin, said Lt. Glenn Holt, a detective with the sheriff’s office.

Police are trying to confirm the identity of this woman, whom they have tentatively identified as Jessica Green, 41, who was in Augusta until this week. Courtesy Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Department

Holt said his office got a copy of a photo identification card from Wisconsin authorities, but because the photo was several years old and Green has been living on the streets, he wasn’t prepared to say it was a confirmed match.

Residents called police about Green on Wednesday afternoon and she was found about 2 a.m. Thursday. Initially, she would only nod or shake her head to communicate, Holt said, but she later answered some questions “yes” or “no.”

“She’s not being of any help, whether that’s intentional or not,” he said.

The sheriff’s office received scores of calls from people who thought they could identify the woman from a photo posted online by the sheriff’s office, but those calls didn’t pan out, Holt said.

Many of the calls were from Henrico, Virginia, where a woman has been missing since Tuesday night, but Holt said family members in Virginia confirmed that the picture of Green did not match that woman.

The Augusta police officer provided the only solid lead, he said, especially after her fingerprints didn’t match any in national databases.

“In my 30 years in law enforcement, this has been a trying one,” Holt said. “She has no history. All the normal places we would go to get something to say, ‘Absolutely, it’s her,’ we came up empty.”

Holt said that when the woman was first spotted in Greene, she was pulling a brown piece of luggage with wheels. He said police are searching for that luggage, hoping that it will have some identification in it.

Holt said the woman is being held at a local hospital. He asked that the hospital not be named, out of concern for the woman’s privacy.

Holt said he believes that the woman has some medical or mental condition, and hopes that the tentative identification may help hospital officials locate medical records. Holt said he didn’t know how long Green might be at the hospital or where she will go once she’s released.

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