Police search Missouri lawmaker's land for missing woman

HARRISONVILLE, Mo. (AP) — Authorities are searching property owned by Missouri Rep. Vicky Hartzler for a missing woman.

The Cass County Sheriff Office said in a news release Tuesday that it's working with Overland Park, Kansas police in the search for Silvia Pearson.

Hartzler spokesman Steve Walsh confirmed that police are looking for the woman on a rural patch of land owned by the congresswoman's family. The land is outside Harrisonville, Missouri, which is about 40 miles south of Kansas City.

Walsh says the Hartzlers are cooperating completely with law enforcement. He says he's unaware of any connection between the congresswoman's family and the missing woman.

Walsh says he's not sure if law enforcement is searching on the Hartzlers' residential property or on an adjacent tract of land they own. But he says it's in "the middle of nowhere."