KALAMAZOO (WWJ) - Family and friends of a West Michigan mother of eight are growing increasingly concerned after she went missing almost a week ago and her car was found abandoned.
Authorities from the Portage Department of Public Safety and the Kalamazoo Sheriff’s Department identified missing woman as Heather Kelley, 35, of Portage. Kelley was first reported missing on Sunday, Dec. 11.
“Since that time both agencies have been working shoulder to shoulder, pretty much around the clock to bring this to a conclusion,” Portage Public Safety Director Nicholas Armold said via WWMT.
“Any time somebody is reported missing and especially four or five days into it, when there’s no reasonable explanation as to why they’re not around, is concerning,” he said. “I’m not willing to jump to any kind of conclusions.”
According to police, Kelley she left her home Saturday night and called her children around 10:20 p.m. to say she would be back shortly -- but she never returned.
Her truck was found abandoned in Kalamazoo by authorities, but police would not release where it was discovered or if it offered any insight about where she might be.
In a press conference on Thursday, authorities from both agencies declined to say if they believed there was foul play involved.
“There’s a lot of detail we’re not going to be able to go into,” Sheriff Richard Fuller said.
“You go back to sometimes you can explain things and other times you can’t,” Armold added. “Right now we can’t exactly explain why we found her vehicle without her and we can’t find her, so yeah that’s concerning and that’s why we’ve put everything we have from both agencies onto this case.”
Kelley is described as a white female standing 5’10” and weighing 130 pounds with long blonde hair. She was last seen wearing blue jeans, a black hoodie and a black coat with fur on the hood, according to post made to Missing in Michigan.
“Our real concern is to try to find this young lady for her family,” Armold said at the conferene. “We know that they’re struggling with her being missing and it makes total sense. Hopefully we can bring this to a happy conclusion at some point. We just need more time.”
Anyone with information has been asked to call the Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Department at 269.383.8821 or Portage Public Safety at 269.329.4567.