CLAY COUNTY, Mo. — The Platte County Sheriff’s Office is talking to a person of interest in the case of two missing women from Edgerton, Mo. Two search warrants have also been executed in relation to the case.
On Saturday, Authorities found the truck linked to the investigation. The two women were reported missing Friday afternoon when one of the women’s two young children were found alone at a home.
Ashley Key and Britny Haarup’s family said they fear something terrible has happened.
The Platte County Sheriff’s Office, along with several different agencies, shut down a gravel road just inside Clay County, southwest of Trimble. They were searching the area on land and air looking for 22-year-old Key and 19-year-old Haarup. The two are half-sisters and both are mothers.
“They’re mothers, they’re human, they’re people. They’re everybody’s daughter,” said Paul Haarup, the women’s father.
Family said Key had only been staying with Haarup and her husband at their home in Edgerton for a few days, as the start of a plan to try to get her life straightened up because, they said, she was hanging out with the wrong crowd.
But Friday around 4 p.m., family members said Haarup’s husband came home to find his daughters, 1-year-old and 6-months, alone in a crib.
“She is a very good mother, she would never leave her kids at home, especially for that amount of time,” said Cassandra Meyers, Haarup’s sister-in-law.
What is more unusual for family is they said both of the women’s purses and Haarup’s cell phone were left behind. They also said some blood was found in the home and sheets were missing.
They also noticed Britny’s husband’s father’s white Dodge Ram truck was gone. That is, until a Platte County deputy came across it around 11 a.m. Saturday, on SW 200th St. off of US 169.
“There’s nothing on the truck that indicates foul play. I can’t make a comment about foul play or not at this point, obviously it’s unusual circumstances with the mothers disappearing,” said Capt. Erik Holland, with the Platte County Sheriff’s Office.
“The truck was our last solid lead to finding them, and now that that’s been found we don’t know what we’re looking for, who were looking for, what people or what area they’re in or anything,” said Paul Haarup, the women’s father.
The family said Key has a 3-year-old daughter. They said they think the people Key had previously been involved with might have something to do with their disappearance.
“There’s certainly nobody in Britny’s life that would do something like this or our extended family and friends that would do something like this,” said Paul Haarup. “Like I said, it’s all speculation right now, but that’s all we got to go on.”
