As the investigation into the disappearance of a Virginia woman entered its third week, investigators said earlier this week that there was nothing new to report as they continued to look for leads in the case.
According to Conecuh County Chief Deputy Tyrone Boykin there was nothing new to report this week regarding the disappearance of Shari Christine Saunders, 67, of Norfolk, Va., who was last seen on video surveillance footage buying gas at the Shell-Marathon gas station at Exit 93 on Interstate Highway 65 in Evergreen on Aug. 5. Saunders, who was traveling to visit relatives in the Monroeville area, never arrived at her destination, and her car was eventually found a week later, abandoned in a remote wooded area of southwestern Conecuh County. Despite a widespread search for Saunders, including a nationwide missing persons bulletin, multiple law enforcement agencies, search helicopters and tracking dogs, Saunders remained missing as of Tuesday afternoon.
In an interview with The Courant earlier this week, Saunders’ niece, Amanda Reed of Norfolk, said that law enforcement officials have told the family that they are actively investigating the disappearance of Saunders, but have released few details about the case because of the ongoing investigation. Reed noted that family members fear that Saunders is either dead or has been killed and is “either in the woods by Evergreen or thrown in a creek or a river.”
Reed pointed out that none of the personal possessions that Saunders had with her have been found. According to Reed, Saunders had at least two suitcases, a tablet, a phone, a GPS device, a 12-pack of Corona beer, snacks and candy, and none of those items were found inside her vehicle. Reed hopes that someone will find one or more of these items, and that will eventually lead to more information on Saunders’ whereabouts.
Reed dispelled the theory that Saunders planned her own disappearance in an effort to start a new life. Reed said that Saunders would not do this, and she pointed out that Saunders was traveling to the Monroeville area to visit her sister, Linda Hager, who has Alzheimer’s Disease. “They were really close,” Reed said, pointing out that Saunders was a devout Jehovah’s Witness with four daughters.
Reed, who is spearheading the family’s efforts to keep Saunders’ disappearance in the public eye, said that the entire situation has been very hard on her family.
“Our lives are hell,” Reed said. “Law enforcement isn’t telling us anything, and everyone asks us questions, and it’s like we don’t know. It hurts. It hurts so bad. We’re scared it’s also going to be put on the backburner.”
Saunders disappeared while making her fourth trip to the Monroeville area, and Saunders’ brother-in-law Bill Hager, who is married to Reed’s mother, Linda Hager, told The Monroe Journal last week that the last contact that they had with Saunders was at 5:44 a.m. on Sat., Aug. 4, when she called from about 20 miles east of Columbia, S.C. During previous trips to Monroeville, Saunders would customarily call the Hagers when she exited I-65 at Evergreen’s Exit 93. The Hagers, who live on Cowboy Road, south of Monroeville, would then meet Saunders at the Minute Stop gas station at the intersection of U.S. Highway 84 and State Highway 21 at Ollie. Reed told The Journal that none of the family ever received a call from Saunders on Aug. 5, saying that she was at Exit 93, so none of the family went to meet her at Ollie.
Law enforcement officers began searching for Saunders on Mon., Aug. 6, just hours after she disappeared after leaving the Shell-Marathon gas station at Exit 93 in Evergreen. During the investigation, it was determined that she last used her credit card at the gas station and when investigators checked surveillance footage from that location, they watched as Saunders pulled into the parking lot just after 1 a.m. Saunders entered the station at 1:08 a.m., and she pulled out of the parking lot a few minutes later, turning left and heading west on U.S. Highway 84, towards Monroeville. She has been missing since that time.
Investigators watched the surveillance footage closely to see if anyone entered the missing woman’s vehicle when she went inside the store, but no one did. Investigators also detected no movement inside the car, which might indicate that someone was hiding in the backseat.
Investigators were initially able to obtain records from Saunders’s cell phone, which showed that the phone “pinged” off the cellular towers in Repton and Ollie as she traveled west on U.S. Highway 84. Oddly, about an hour after her phone “pinged” off the tower at Ollie, it “pinged” one last time off a cell tower behind the Yellow Hammer Travel Center at Exit 69 on I-65, west of Brewton. That occurred at 3:36 a.m. on Sun., Aug. 5, and since that time, there has been no other activity on her phone, officers said.
On Mon., Aug. 6, a missing persons report on Saunders was issued nationwide and numerous law enforcement agencies became involved in the ongoing search for Saunders, including the Conecuh County Sheriff’s Department, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department, the Escambia County Sheriff’s Department, the Monroeville Police Department and many others.
On Sun., Aug. 12, a father and son riding four-wheelers found Saunders’ car, a red 2010 Toyota Corolla, stuck in the mud on an unnamed road about three miles off the Range Road in southwestern Conecuh County, not far from the county’s borders with Monroe and Escambia counties. The car’s front, passenger-side window was found broken out, investigators said. Law enforcement officers arrived at the vehicle at 11 p.m. and began a multi-day search that involved 25 law enforcement officers, volunteers, helicopters and tracking dogs.
Saunders’ car was also transported to a Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) lab in Mobile, where the car’s interior was processed for evidence. Investigators took fingerprint samples from the car, vacuumed the car for soil, fiber and hair samples and used the chemical spray Luminol to search for blood and other bodily fluids inside the car. Preliminary findings at the lab revealed nothing out of the ordinary like blood in the car, and investigators do not consider the car’s interior to be a crime scene.
The initial search for Saunders was called off at 5 p.m. on Tues., Aug. 14, after the search turned up no sign of Saunders. On Fri., Aug. 17, an additional day of searching resumed in Escambia County, but no sign of Saunders was found during that ground search either. The search in Escambia County was prompted by tips received by law enforcement.
Saunders is described as a white female with no known mental or physical problems. She is 5-foot-1 and weighs 117 pounds with blonde hair and hazel eyes. Bill Hager also told The Journal that Saunders has no known illnesses that would cause her to become disoriented and to his knowledge she wasn’t taking any medications. Anyone who believes that they have seen Saunders or anyone who has any information related to the case is asked to call the Conecuh County Sheriff’s Department at 578-1260.
