In the weeks since two Collin County women have vanished without a trace, their families and friends have been hoping for the best but imagining the worst.
Almaz Gebremedhin, 42, has been missing for 25 days. The Wylie woman was last seen headed to work a little before 5:30 a.m. Oct. 2. A neighbor’s surveillance camera captured her silver Chevy minivan driving by. But she never made it to the nursing home less than three miles away.
Christina Morris, 23, has been missing for 58 days. Video surveillance shows the Fort Worth woman walking with a friend into a parking garage before they went their separate ways at The Shops at Legacy in Plano just before 4 a.m. Aug. 30. No one has seen her since. Her locked car was found in the garage four days later.
Police have found no evidence of a crime in either case. Nor has there been any activity on either woman’s cell phone, credit cards or bank accounts. For now, they remain classified as missing persons.
Plano police spokesman David Tilley said cases like these are a challenge to investigate.
“We treat all missing person cases as if a serious crime has been committed,” he said.
Detectives in both Wylie and Plano have been interviewing family, friends and witnesses in hopes of a clue. There have been extensive searches of the areas where they disappeared. And there have been pleas to the public for help in the disappearances.
Reward money — raised privately in both cases — is being offered for information on either woman’s whereabouts.
“We believe someone out there does know something, and we need them to call us,” Tilley said of the Morris case.
Both women are listed online in the Texas Department of Public Safety Missing Persons Clearinghouse. They also appear in the National Crime Information Center, a database accessible to law enforcement nationwide, as well as a public database called the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.
The latter, according to NamUs director of communications Todd Matthews, is often used to match unidentified remains with a missing persons case. And while some families believe a listing there could be considered a concession that the person is dead, Matthews said, missing people on the list have turned up alive.
“A lot of people want them in there immediately … just because of the visibility,” he said of the database. “It’s definitely good for exposure.”
Wylie Detective Nuria Arroyo said Gebremedhin’s case has been difficult to work. “We don’t have a lot of information to go off of yet,” she said.
Detectives there have been tracking tips, she said, but so far, not many have come in.
Gebremedhin’s family and friends have searched on their own as well. They’ve checked the route she normally takes to work. They’ve handed out fliers. They recently hired a private investigation firm to help. Social media also plays a role in keeping her name and photo in the public eye.
“It really has been tough,” said Feyera Milkessa, a friend of the family. Gebremedhin has a husband, Sisay Zelelew, a 10-year-old son and an 8-year-old daughter. Gebremedhin’s mother also lives with the family in Wylie.
Milkessa said he last saw Gebremedhin at a gathering about 10 days before she disappeared. She seemed happy, he said. “She’s a very, very sociable person,” Milkessa said. “She loves her family.”
Judy Houston is Gebremedhin’s supervisor at Garnet Hill Rehabilitation and Skilled Care. Gebremedhin is always smiling and friendly to her co-workers and the more than 100 residents at the nursing home where she dispenses medication as an aide, Houston said. Gebremedhin never missed work, so when she didn’t show up, people immediately became concerned, Houston said.
“I just wish they would find her,” Houston said.
Morris was reported missing on Sept. 2 when she didn’t show up after the Labor Day weekend at her job in marketing for a Fort Worth online dating firm. She is described as funny, loving and full of energy. If the roles were reversed and a friend of hers was missing, “she would be leading the charge,” her stepmother, Anna Morris, said.
Morris’ family and friends have posted fliers, conducted their own searches and enlisted the help of Texas Equusearch to look on foot and from the air with drones. They have been selling T-shirts and bracelets to raise money for their efforts. They have car magnets with her photo and pertinent details. They are also active on social media.
Most recently, they have been picketing the home of the man pictured in the surveillance video with Morris. Police have interviewed him. But he has declined to talk to Morris’ family on advice from an attorney, Morris’ stepmother said.
“We’re not accusing him of anything,” Anna Morris said. “I know it’s dramatic, but we’re trying to talk to him to let us know what he knows.”
Christina Morris has a beagle named Madden. He’s staying with family for now. Anna Morris said her stepdaughter never would have left Madden. Nor would she have gone so long without contacting her family, which includes a 26-year-old sister and a 16-year-old brother.
“We’re heartbroken,” Anna Morris said. “There’s no way we’re going to give up. We’re going to find her. We owe that to her.”
