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‘It’s Alarming’: Family Of Missing Woman Who Disappeared From Venice Beach Frustrated And Puzzled
“It’s not like she just walked away on her own,” Kolby Story’s brother, Josh, said in an interview. “I get that happens, but this is not the case. That is not my sister at all.”
The family of a missing California woman who mysteriously vanished after an evening at a Los Angeles beach earlier this month is pleading for her safe return.
Kolby Story, 32, was last seen by a friend leaving Venice Beach on Dec. 7, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. However, the California esthetician’s family didn’t learn of her disappearance until more than a week later, on Dec. 16.
“It’s just frustrating,” Josh Story, her older brother, told NBC’s “Dateline.” “My sister is missing and no one tells us.”
His younger sister had originally been reported missing on Dec. 9, he said.
On Dec. 6, Kolby Story spent the afternoon at a Venice Beach skate park with her boyfriend and another friend, relatives said. She returned home and later headed down to the beach with a sleeping bag and ukulele, according to both her roommate and father. At the beach, Kolby later misplaced her keys, her brother said, and called a friend to assist her.
“It didn’t take long to find the keys, maybe 20 minutes,” he told “Dateline,” recounting what his sister’s friend told him. “But they stayed there for a while. He was trying to get her to leave… told her it wasn’t safe. It was dark and getting cold. But she told him to go home and that she would be fine.”
Story was later seen by her friend departing the beach around 2 a.m. and was thought to be headed to her car, which was parked near a neighborhood pizzeria.
“That’s the last time anyone saw her,” her brother told “Dateline.”
Story’s car later turned up in a Marina del Rey police tow lot. The vehicle, which had reportedly sustained a flat tire, had been towed from a nearby grocery store parking lot.
“It would make sense that she got a flat and then called someone to come get her,” Josh Story explained. “But there were no outgoing calls on her phone records — so who came to get her? And that’s where it ends. We have nothing after that. And it’s alarming. We’re just very worried about her.”
Her family searched her cell phone records and discovered she missed four phone calls from a friend between 2 a.m. and 8:45 a.m. but didn’t observe any unusual activity or further clues.
Investigators are still piecing together a timeline of Story’s disappearance.
The family has also conducted their own search efforts for the missing woman, canvassing entire neighborhoods with posters of her, as well as speaking with neighborhood residents in Venice Beach and Mar Vista.
They’re now praying someone may recognize her and come forward with information related to her whereabouts.
“It’s not like she just walked away on her own,” Josh Story said. “I get that happens, but this is not the case. That is not my sister at all.”
Kolby Story has brown hair and hazel eyes. She’s five feet, four inches tall, and weighs roughly 115 pounds.
“We encourage the public to call us if they have any information that could help locate Kolby,” Det. Shannon Kramer, of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Missing Persons Unit said, “Dateline” reported.
Investigators are urging anyone with information related to Kolby’s whereabouts to contact Los Angeles Police Department detectives at 213-996-1800 or L.A. Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
