Missing woman's body found in Lynn pond

The last sighting of Alice Nunes was by a witness who saw a woman who fit her description having two drinks at the bar at the Four Winds Pub in Lynn, which is about a half-mile drive, or two minutes, from Flax Pond.

Authorities stressed that they had searched every body of water in Lynn and Peabody, including the area where the car and body were found today. But the earlier search of Flax Pond had found no tire tracks indicating a car went in the water and a State Police sonar search of the water came up with nothing.

"This has been a needle-in-a-haystack search for her since Day 1. It's not an exact science and there was a huge amount of body of water to search," said Peabody Police Lieutenant Robert Church.

The disappearance of Alice Nunes had been a tantalizing mystery. Almost four decades after they married, Alice and John Nunes were still inseparable at the time of Alice's disappearance, their family told the Globe. They traveled frequently, to Aruba, Las Vegas, the Bahamas. They ate out on Friday nights, favoring a Portuguese society hall that donated proceeds to charity. On weekends, they roamed the North Shore, sometimes settling in with coffee and newspapers at the lighthouse in Marblehead.

The couple, who had had been teenage sweethearts, were part of a large local clan with Portuguese roots.

Alice Nunes was described as warm, outgoing, and motherly, and she made friends everywhere she went, her husband said, on airplanes, in restaurants, walking the beach in Aruba, her favorite vacation spot. She was like a second mother to her two grandchildren, who shared their grandparents' home, along with their mother. She hosted the family open house on Christmas Eve, and she was always the one who organized parties at work.

Then on Dec. 15, 2008, she did something out of character. After fixing dinner and eating with her family, she left the house without telling her husband.

A witness told police a woman fitting the description of Alice Nunes had two drinks at the bar at the pub on Sluice Pond just outside Wyoma Square in Lynn, roughly between 8:15 and 8:35 p.m. The bar was about 3 miles from the Nunes home. The woman did not speak to anyone and seemed upset, police said the witness told them.

About 10 minutes later, John Nunes said, he received a call and heard his wife's panicked voice.

"There's water coming in the car," Alice Nunes screamed. "Come and get me, John. I'm in Lynn. Hurry!" Then the phone went dead. It was the last time he would hear from her.

Nunes used almost a full tank of gas that night, driving the streets of Lynn for hours looking for his wife.

Peabody and Lynn police traced the perimeter of ponds in the area, looking for tire tracks, broken branches, or other signs that a car had gone in. They found none. They checked her cell phone records and determined that her last phone call bounced off a cell tower in Wyoma Square, putting her within 15 miles.

Police even considered the possibility that she was still alive, checking hotels and broadcasting her description nationwide. But they found nothing.