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Indiana Woman Was Supposed To Be Starting A New Job, But She Vanished Before Getting There On Her First Day
“We’re trying to wait. We’re trying to be patient, but we’re hurt. We’re shattered,” Najah Ferrell’s sister said.
An Indiana woman woke up early for the first day of her new job, but she’d never arrive and family members are now pleading for answers about where the missing mother could be.
Najah Ferrell, 30, was scheduled to begin her new job at Panera Bread in Indianapolis at 5 a.m. on March 15. Her fiancé said he last saw her around 3 a.m. that morning as she was getting ready for her first shift at the restaurant, which was about 30 miles away from her Avon home, NBC News reports.
Ferrell would never make it to the restaurant and her car, a black 2018 Nissan Altima with dark tinted windows, is still missing more than a week after she disappeared.
“We’re not really learning of anything that led up to this. It’s almost as frustrating as it is inexplicable,” Deputy Chief Brian Nugent of the Avon Police Department told Dateline. “Everything was normal and then, all of a sudden, she’s gone.”
Ferrell’s family became concerned when she failed to pick up her foster children later that day and contacted authorities.
“The foster case manager called me and said the school called me because Najah didn’t show up to pick the kids up. It alerted me because I know Najah was never irresponsible,” her mother, Paula Gholsen, told local station WXIN.
Ferrell also has two biological children.
Since Ferrell has gone missing, investigators have interviewed neighbors, friends and family members and believe “foul play is certainly a possibility.” They’ve also conducted ground and aerial searches near her home and are trying to track down cell phone data to help track her movements that morning.
“We are running into slow response from the cell phone company to give us the data we need,” Nugent told Dateline.
Ferrell’s family and friends said it is out of character for the mom to just vanish without a trace.
“She would never just leave in the middle of the night and just not come back,” her best friend Crystal Royal told WTHR.
Her sister, Jalessa Joseph, told the station the wait for news about her sister has been excruciating.
“We’re trying to wait. We’re trying to be patient, but we’re hurt. We’re shattered,” she said.
According to the Avon Police Department, Ferrell is 5’4” tall and weighs approximately 180 pounds. She has black hair and brown eyes. Anyone with information about the case, is urged to contact the Hendricks County Communications Center or the crime stoppers hotline.
