Saunders
Aug. 5 marked one year since the unexplained disappearance of a Virginia woman who was last seen alive on video surveillance footage at an Evergreen gas station, but investigators said earlier this week that the prospects of solving the case are "very promising."
Shari Christine Saunders, 67, of Norfolk, Va. 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, 2018. 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.
During the past year, the Escambia County Sheriff's Department has spearheaded the investigation into the woman's mysterious disappearance and Investigator Bill Blair told The Courant that the case remains an open and active investigation. Blair said that he and at least five other investigators are working on different aspects of the case and have spent hundreds of man hours during the past year investigating the woman's disappearance.
Blair said that the prospects of solving the case are "very promising" and noted that his investigators have done "a lot of good work" investigating leads in the case. Blair declined to reveal more about the ongoing investigation because it remains an open, active case.
Saunders disappeared while making her fourth trip to the Monroeville area, and family members said that the last contact they had with Saunders was at 5:44 a.m. on Aug. 4, 2018 when she called from about 20 miles east of Columbia, S.C. During previous trips to Monroeville, Saunders would customarily call family members when she exited I-65 at Evergreen's Exit 93. Family members, who live 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. Family members said 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 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 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 Aug. 5, and since that time, there has been no other activity on her phone, officers said.
On Aug. 6, 2018 a missing person 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. The Escambia County Sheriff's Department eventually took the lead in the investigation.
On Aug. 12, 2018 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.
The initial search for Saunders was called off at 5 p.m. on Aug. 14, 2018 after the search turned up no sign of Saunders. On Aug. 17, 2018 an additional day of searching resumed in Escambia County, but no sign of Saunders was found during that ground search either.
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. Relatives reported that Saunders has no known illnesses that would cause her to become disoriented and to their 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 Escambia County Sheriff's Department at 251-867-0304.
