'Alive and OK!!!': Family celebrates as missing Barberton woman found in Tennessee
A Barberton woman missing since Dec. 17 has been found alive and living out of her car in Jackson, Tennessee, police said Sunday night.
The family of Ma'Ri'Ana Spaulding had feared for the 25-year-old woman's safety after she failed to contact family members throughout the holidays, missing her own birthday and that of her 4-year-old son. It was his first birthday out of the hospital after a heart transplant, Spaulding's mother, Lavina Black, said in a Jan. 11 interview.
Barberton police had asked the public for help on Jan. 11 after efforts to locate Spaulding had failed, and family members pleaded on social media for help locating her.
Police from as far away as Rockport, Texas, had sought information as news of Spaulding's disappearance spread. Her family offered a $5,000 reward in an effort to locate her. On Jan. 12, Ohio Attorney General David Yost's office posted a plea on Twitter to help locate the missing woman.
'Like she vanished': Police seek help finding Barberton woman missing since Dec. 17
In a text message Monday morning, Black celebrated the news that her daughter had been located.
"We found her alive and ok!!!" Black wrote. "GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME."
Spaulding's mother said Jan. 11 that she became increasingly worried when her daughter didn't call during the holidays.
"She missed Christmas, her birthday, her son's birthday, New Year's and then my birthday," Black said.
On her Facebook page, Black had asked in several posts for help finding her daughter.
"God bless all the parents that have missing children/ missing adult children," Black wrote in one post last week. "I wouldn’t wish this feeling on any parent. Not knowing is the worst feeling you could ever have!!"
Black said Jan. 11 that she went to her daughter's house on the south side of Barberton and found water coming from underneath a door. The front door was unlocked and a pipe by the water heater had burst.
"We went out to her house to check on her and we just walked straight in," Black said. "Her house was in disarray... That's not how she normally keeps her home."
Black said at the time she feared her daughter, whom she described as a trusting person, had become involved with someone who was connected to her disappearance.
"I feel it in my soul, and I feel it in my gut," she said.
In the Sunday statement from Barberton police, officer Marty Eberhart said Jackson police checked on Spaulding's welfare and notified her family that she had been found. The statement thanked Jackson police, other law enforcement departments, local media and the public for their assistance finding the Barberton woman.
Jackson, a city of 68,000 residents, is located about 625 miles southwest of Barberton.
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Leave a message for Alan Ashworth at 330-996-3859 or email him at aashworth@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @newsalanbeaconj.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Barberton woman missing for a month found in Tennessee
