Boots on roof, empty handgun: Mystery deepens on mom missing for weeks after cryptic call

DETROIT – Adrienne Quintal's boots and cellphone were on the roof of her family's cabin in northern Michigan.

Her empty 9mm handgun was on the ground below. The car she used was parked nearby.

A mixed-breed dog she and her boyfriend adopted 10 days earlier from the Benzie County animal shelter was unharmed inside the locked cabin near Honor, a tiny village about 21 miles southwest of Traverse City.

At the cabin, police – responding to a middle-of-the-night call – found bullet holes in the windows and ceiling.

Quintal was nowhere to be found.

It's been five weeks since the 47-year-old mother – known as Ada – was last heard from.

Earlier: Police search for a woman who made a frantic call for help, then vanished

Quintal used her cellphone to call a family friend in Warren at 2:34 a.m. Oct. 17, saying she heard noises at the cabin, according to Jenny Bryson, Quintal's older sister.

Bryson said Quintal told the friend there were people outside and she had shot one of them in the face and to call police. The friend called her back after calling police, Quintal's sister said, but the call went to voicemail.

"It is gut-wrenching. I lay awake every night wondering where she is," said Bryson, who lives in Macomb County.

Firearm deer hunting season is underway, and Benzie County sheriff's investigators asked hunters to keep a lookout in the rural area – nearly 250 miles from metro Detroit – for any clues.

Quintal's family, including her ex-husband, doubled the reward for information in the case to $20,000 through Nov. 30, hoping hope that someone will come forward, Bryson said.

"It's a total mystery how she vanished," she said Thursday. "And our family desperately wants some answers."

Unusual scene

About eight minutes after Quintal called the family friend Oct. 17, Benzie County Central Dispatch received a 911 transfer from Michigan State Police Metro Dispatch from the friend.

The friend told Benzie dispatchers that Quintal was involved in a shootout with two men. She said that Quintal told her she shot one of the men in the face, that the other man was shooting at her and that she was shooting back at them, the Benzie County Sheriff's Office said in a news release this month.

It stated that Quintal told the friend to call police for her and provided an address that turned out to be an incorrect house number. At 3:08 a.m. Oct. 17, Benzie dispatch got the correct address from one of Quintal's relatives, and seven minutes later, authorities approached the cabin.

They forced entry into the cabin, but found no one inside.

They found no blood or evidence of anyone who had been hurt in or around the cabin. They found evidence suggesting shots were fired from inside the cabin to the outside.

There were about a half-dozen bullet holes, including one in the ceiling, Sheriff's Detective Lt. Troy Lamerson told the Free Press. A driver's side window of the vehicle Quintal drove also was struck, he said.

Lamerson said there were casings around the outside of the cabin from what appeared to be multiple guns. Some casings were older and rusty and others newer. He said authorities awaited results of ballistics tests.

Lamerson said the vehicle was registered to Quintal's boyfriend, who had been at the cabin with Quintal but left in another vehicle he owned Oct. 15 to return to metro Detroit.

Lamerson said Quintal tried to call two other people, whom he declined to identify, before calling the family friend. He said the family friend told police she heard gunshots in the background while on the phone with Quintal.

Lamerson said the house was secured from the inside, but authorities found some windows at the cabin open – including one with bullet holes in it. He said Quintal most likely got out of the cabin through a small window on the west end of the house.

From there, she may have climbed onto the roof, where police found her boots and cellphone. It's unclear how her gun ended up on the ground.

No notes were left behind, Lamerson said, and authorities found no video footage.

Neighbors are pretty spread out, Lamerson said, but one living in the area thought they heard gunshots around 2:30 a.m. Oct. 17. He said a neighbor spoke with Quintal on Oct. 16, and it appeared that everything was all right.

"We've not ruled anyone out as a suspect or ruled out any possible theories on what could have occurred," he said.

Several theories

Lamerson said authorities have several theories about what might have happened:

•Quintal was abducted.

•Quintal had some type of medical or other problem that caused her to believe people were after her, and she fled into the woods and swamp area.

•The incident was staged because Quintal wanted to get away from her life or was in fear for her safety.

Lamerson said authorities checked hospitals to see whether there were any gunshot victims who might fit what Quintal told the family friend on the phone.

More: Police suspect foul play in disappearance of Southfield woman in northern Michigan

Bryson said Quintal has been a concealed pistol license holder for at least 10 years and never went anywhere without her 9mm handgun. She said her sister is a good shot.

Bryson said her sister had worked in the auto industry as a contractor for an engineering firm as a database analyst but had some health issues and was laid off.

Bryson said Quintal hadn't been working full-time for about two years but was doing odd jobs, and their uncle paid her $500 to make repairs on the old cabin.

Bryson said she doesn't buy the theory that Quintal would stage her disappearance, saying Quintal loves her adult son too much to put him and other relatives "through that heartache and pain."

If her sister wanted to leave, Bryson said, she would have left a note and taken her purse, her vaping devices and vehicle – all of which were at the cabin.

Bryson said her sister was involved in an altercation in metro Detroit in July in which Quintal was "seriously hurt" and hospitalized. Bryson declined to go into too many details so as not to impede the investigation into her sister's disappearance.

Quintal's nose was broken in the altercation and she had a concussion, which Bryson said might be considered a traumatic brain injury.

Bryson said the person who hurt her sister hasn't been caught, and she's "not going to write that off until that person is found and cleared by the police."

Lamerson said Quintal has no criminal history.

Though Bryson said she won't discount a medical condition that could have led to her sister's disappearance, but she leans toward Quintal being abducted.

Bryson has a message for her sister – if she's reading or listening.

"I want to know where you are," she said. "I want to know you are OK."

Follow Christina Hall on Twitter: @challreporter.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan mom missing weeks after call for help leads to mystery