Exactly a month has passed since Ann Marie Kelley was last seen, but Gage County officials say they still have few clues and no new leads in the disappearance of the 36-year-old rural Filley woman.
“There is absolutely nothing to report,” Gage County Attorney Randall Ritnour said in an interview Wednesday evening.
Last week, authorities searched unsuccessfully at several Gage County lakes for Kelley and her 1991 Plymouth Voyager minivan she was last seen driving on the morning of April 15.
The Nebraska State Patrol has also flown numerous aerial surveillance flights over Gage County and surrounding southeast Nebraska counties as well as over parts of northern Kansas during the past four weeks, while authorities have also scoured the Gage County countryside searching for clues, Ritnour said.
In addition, Kelley’s name and description have been posted on a nationwide missing person’s database.
Ritnour said the search will likely slow down next week when the Richard Griswold murder trial begins on Monday in Gage County District Court.
However, Ritnour said representatives from the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office who had volunteered to help earlier with the investigation and Gage County officials are expected to meet on May 27 to discuss further options, including searching more lakes.
According to Gage County officials, Kelley left her residence about three miles east and two miles north of Filley at about 5:45 a.m. April 15. She was last seen by a relative driving her dark gray wood-paneled 1991 Plymouth Voyager minivan at about 8:25 a.m. that day at SunMart in Beatrice.
Ritnour said other clues remain scarce.
What is known is that Kelley bought about $50 worth of items at SunMart, Ritnour said, and she left her cell phone at home that morning.
An additional piece of information Ritnour revealed Wednesday was that Kelley had called her employer, a cleaning service which cleans Southeast Community College, to say she was not coming in to work that day because of something at her children’s school she had to deal with.
However, nothing was going on at her children’s school, Ritnour said.
In addition, there have been no reported sightings of her van or any contact with her since her disappearance.
“It’s highly unusual that someone would go an entire month without contacting somebody,” he said.
Ritnour said authorities are still considering Kelley’s disappearance as a missing person’s case and not a criminal case.
“We have no reason at this point to consider this a criminal investigation,” he said.
Meanwhile, authorities are continuing to ask the public for any information surrounding Kelley’s disappearance. She is described as 5 feet, 4 inches tall, weighing about 125-130 pounds, with auburn/red/brown hair.
Anyone with information should call the Gage County Sheriff’s Office at 402-223-5221 or Beatrice Crime Stoppers at 402-228-4343.