PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia detectives arrived early Friday morning at the Awbury Arboretum, a 55-acre park in East Germantown, where authorities say evidence led them in the ongoing search for missing 23-year-old Kada Scott, last seen on the night of Oct. 4.
Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore said the department enlisted the help of a couple of hundred of its cadets to scour north of Washington Lane, which cuts through a heavily wooded area.
“A lot of what we’re doing is following the evidence that we have… witnesses that gave us information. Some of that information has led us to this area," Vanore said. “At this point, we’re just doing everything we can. We try to do that on missing person investigations. We do everything we can to run down every lead.”
Scott was last seen by her mother. She left her home on Rodney Street in East Mount Airy to work an overnight shift at a nearby nursing home. Detectives said she got to work but left before completing her shift. Police recovered her car in the parking lot, but her phone is dead and she hasn’t updated her usually very active social media accounts.
“She disappeared off social media, so it’s concerning,” Vanore told reporters at the scene. “Any young people today, they can’t live without having their phone in their hand, so that’s a concern.”
Investigators said Scott had recently complained to family about being harassed by phone. It’s not clear if that’s related to her disappearance.
Police have not revealed if they discovered anything during Friday's search.
Police have not said why their investigation led them to the arboretum, only that it is related to Scott’s disappearance.
“It’s a troubling missing person report. It’s certainly troubling, so we don’t know if foul play was involved, but we certainly see some signs that this person wasn’t voluntarily missing," Vanore said.
This is a developing story and will be updated.