Firefighters were called to Britney Gard’s home to put out a small fire – but when they arrived, they found no one home, despite the 46-year-old’s car and purse still being there
A mother-of-two has been missing since a suspicious fire broke out at her home a week ago — and her distraught family are concerned that “something bigger” has happened to her.
Firefighters were called to Britney Gard’s home on September 30 to put out a small fire. But when they arrived, they found no one home, despite the 46-year-old’s car and purse still being there.
Britney was last seen and spoken to that same evening, and her daughter said she knew something was wrong when she did not show up for her volleyball game the following day, WRTV reported.
Britney’s sister Stephanie Bowen said she was her children’s biggest cheerleader and it was uncharacteristic of her to miss a game.
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“Who took her? How does someone just go missing these days? It doesn’t make any sense,” Stephanie told the TV station as her family continued to scour cornfields and woods near Britney’s home, roughly 35 miles west of Indianapolis.
“I feel like there’s something here bigger that we don’t know and someone knows something,” she added.
“[Britney] wasn’t there. And then there’s a fire. Her car is at home, her purse is at home. She’s nowhere to be found, and the house is on fire. It makes no sense.”
Fire investigators have deemed the blaze suspicious and are still compiling evidence from the home that they plan to share with police.
Britney’s family, alongside law enforcement, are also ramping up efforts to locate the missing mother of two. They have plastered the town with her picture and physical description, including at gas stations and on pizza boxes.
Authorities have also used drones to search the area, the sheriff’s office said. They also contacted the Indiana Department of Natural Resources to help search for Britney in a pond on her property immediately after her disappearance — but did not find her.
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In the meantime, Stephanie asked locals to “be vigilant”. “If you have a camera on your house or something, go back and look at it and see if you saw something different that night,” she told the outlet. “Britney, we love you. We hope to see you safely return home.”
It comes after a distraught family appealed for help to find a mum who vanished after she was seen getting in a taxi.
Paige Kelly, 27, from Leigh in Manchester, told her boyfriend she was going to visit her mum and left her home in Leigh on Tuesday, September 23. However, she never turned up at her mum’s home and has since been reported missing to police.
Paige’s aunt, Kate, said the family are “extremely concerned” about her safety, adding that she’s been in a “vulnerable state of mind”. Loved ones are planning to print off posters and plaster them around the local area in the hopes of finding the missing 27-year-old.
