Lookout continues for missing Belle Isle mother as family coordinates search parties
Since Thursday, an RV parked outside the Walmart on South Goldenrod Road has been set up as a “command post” where the family of Stephanie Hollingsworth’s have coordinated searches for the 50-year-old, who has been missing for two weeks.
Hollingsworth’s family as well as dozens of friends and community members have volunteered to search wherever they can as the Belle Isle Police Department conducts its own investigation into her disappearance.
Taped to the sides of the RV are missing person signs bearing Hollingsworth’s face and printouts of maps of the Orlando area marking where people have searched. By Saturday evening, landmarks and neighborhoods stretching from the Orlando Premium Outlets to pockets of the Orange County’s south and east ends were marked with yellow highlighter.
“We’ve had so many people searching all week,” Scott Hollingsworth, her husband, said. “What this allows us to do is to do it in an organized fashion so we can not backtrack and cover a bigger area.”
Stephanie Hollingsworth was last seen Sept. 25, having left her house around noon in a silver 2000 Chevy Tahoe with the Florida license plate Y50XUR. She was wearing a black shirt and gray or black pants when she went missing, police said.
Investigators said her debit card was last used at 2 p.m. that day to withdraw $20 from an ATM at a nearby Bank of America.
The search has so far been fruitless as authorities and the family have struggled to find any indication of where she could have gone. Police said they haven’t found signs of suspicious activity related to her going missing.
“Unfortunately, we have no updates at this time. Nothing. No leads at all,” Belle Isle police Chief Laura Houston said in an email Saturday afternoon. A $5,000 reward has been offered for information leading to her being found.
Scott Hollingsworth said it was unlike his wife, a mother of three, to go missing like that, having left the home without her cellphone or a change of clothes. On Friday, a vigil to raise awareness of his wife’s disappearance was attended by dozens, a testament to how beloved she was in the community, he said.
“She’s an amazing person, an amazing mother. She’s a beautiful soul and just gave everything she had to everyone in her life,” he said. “A lot of people loved her, and anyone could always count on her.”
The key to the search, Hollingsworth added, is finding the SUV, and he has called on volunteers and others driving around the area to be mindful of the vehicle.
“What we’re asking for is people to check all their immediate surroundings — parking lots, apartment complexes, remote areas," Scott Hollingsworth said. “Anywhere a truck like that can be parked and unnoticed for a long time. It can’t just disappear.”
Anyone with information on Stephanie Hollingsworth’s whereabouts is asked to call the Belle Isle Police Department via the Orange County Sheriff’s Office Dispatch number at 407-836-4357.
creyes-rios@orlandosentinel.com
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