BELLE ISLE, Fla. (AP) - Law enforcement officials and volunteers are searching for a central Florida mother who has been missing for two weeks.
Since Thursday, a recreational vehicle parked outside a Walmart in Belle Isle is serving as “command post for the family of Stephanie Hollingsworth, a mother of three who was last seen Sept. 25, the Orlando Sentinel reported. Her family, friends and community members are looking wherever they can as the Belle Isle Police Department conducts its own investigation.
“We’ve had so many people searching all week,” her husband, Scott Hollingsworth, told the newspaper. “What this allows us to do is to do it in an organized fashion so we can not backtrack and cover a bigger area.”
Hollingsworth, 50, left her house around noon on Sept. 25 in a silver 2000 Chevy Tahoe with the Florida license plate Y50XUR, police said. She was wearing a black shirt and gray or black pants. Her debit card was last used at 2 p.m. that day, when she withdrew $20 from an ATM at a nearby Bank of America.
Police said they haven’t found signs of suspicious activity related to her going missing.
“Unfortunately, we have no updates at this time. Nothing. No leads at all,” Belle Isle police Chief Laura Houston said in an email Saturday afternoon. A $5,000 reward has been offered for information leading to her being found.
Her husband told the newspaper it was unlike her to leave without taking her cellphone, or even a change of clothes.
“She’s an amazing person, an amazing mother. She’s a beautiful soul and just gave everything she had to everyone in her life,” he said Friday, during a vigil to raise awareness in the community. “A lot of people loved her, and anyone could always count on her.”
He’s asking the volunteers and others driving in the area near Orlando to be on the lookout for the SUV.
“What we’re asking for is people to check all their immediate surroundings - parking lots, apartment complexes, remote areas,” Scott Hollingsworth said. “Anywhere a truck like that can be parked and unnoticed for a long time. It can’t just disappear.”
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