An unending search Missing woman's family seeks answers world," Pictou said recently from his home at the Barrah Head Micmac Indian Reserve on Chapel Island in Nova Scotia. Not many, including police, seem to believe she is alive. The young Indian woman, Virginia Sue Pictou Noyes, then 26, sneaked out of a Bangor hospital sometime after 1 a.m. Sunday, April 24, 1993. She was spotted in Houlton later that morning, but disappeared somewhere between there and her home in Easton and hasn't been seen since. Bangor police, responding to a report of an assault outside a State Street bar, had found Mrs. Noyes bruised and bleeding at about 10 p.m. the night before she disappeared. She told police that her husband, Larry Noyes, and his brother Roger Noyes Jr., both of Easton, had punched her in the head and face. According to the officers, Mrs. Noyes said the two men beat her "because they were drunk." Larry Noyes was charged with domestic assault and taken to Penobscot County Jail. Roger Noyes Jr. was issued a summons on an assault charge. Both charges were dismissed, however, after Mrs. Noyes disappeared, according to the District Attorney's Office. Pictou believes his daughter was murdered and that his son-in-law did it. He recalled a day shortly after his daughter's disappearance when Larry Noyes approached him, professed his love for Pictou's daughter, and denied all the rumors that he had killed her. "I said, 'You did it too, didn't you,' and he walked away from me," said Pictou. "I know he did it and all my sons and daughters know it; my native people know it, and all the people in Easton and Fort Fairfield know it." By Gloria Flannery "I know in my heart Of the NEWS Staff she is no longer with EASTON - The Indian spirit of his daughter, "Red Bear," is restless and cannot find peace until her remains us in this world." have been found and buried near her family, says Robert Pictou. - Robert Pictou, father "I know in my heart she is no longer with us in this world," Pictou said recently from his home at the Barrah Virginia Sue Pictou Noyes A husband maintains his innocence Larry Noyes, 27, is now in Aroostook County Jail in Houlton serving a one-year sentence for operating a motor vehicle memberwhile under the influence of intoxicating liquor, driving after license suspension, driving to endanger, failure to stop for an "contraofficer and violation of bail conditions. During a recent interview at the jail, he ofcontinued to deny having anything to do Larry Noyes Roger Noyes Jr. with his wife's disappearance. qual"They said I hit Virginia, which I never did," he said. "Everyone thinks I killed her. Let them think what they want, I know what is true." "Everyone thinks I When told that the lead investigator in the case, state police Detective James Madore, says Noyes and his broth- killed her. ... I know coner are prime suspects, Noyes became animated. He said he was "ready to rip (Madore's) head off" when what is true." the detective tried to get him to confess to killing his wife. See Missing, A4, Col. 1 -* Larry Noyes, husband *