Authorities found and identified the skeletal remains of a Missouri mother in a remote wooded area six months after she mysteriously disappeared.
The identity of Emily Strite, 34, was confirmed through medical and dental records after a Frissell Road homeowner discovered the mother of four’s skeletal remains in a wooded area on Sept. 28, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
Authorities said no cause of death has been determined, and the investigation into her disappearance and death remains ongoing — leaving Strite’s family and friends desperate for answers.
“We pray now that we get answers and whoever hurt her is brought to justice,” Amanda Bauman, Strite’s childhood friend, told Fox 2 Now.
“She literally lit up a room every chance that she got.”
Strite — whose friends say she was in and out of an abusive relationship with the father of her youngest child — was last seen leaving a friend’s house on foot in the De Soto area where she was staying on April 12, according to police.
She was reported missing eight days later by her mother.
Charlyn McCalin and her daughter last spoke on the phone the morning of April 12, NBC News reported. Strite told her mother that she was going to visit her three children in Illinois, where they live with their father.
Panic set in a week later when the children’s father contacted McClain to tell her he hadn’t heard from Strite in over a week, adding that he was unaware of her plans to visit the their children.
“He has never called me and questioned anything about Emily or to tell me anything about Emily,” McClain told NBC.
“That’s why I panicked when he called me because he had never done that before.”
McClain filed the missing person’s report the next day.
Police said there is no evidence indicating there was foul play or a crime committed in either Strite’s disappearance or death, leaving the case with no suspects or persons of interest, NBC reported.
“It shouldn’t have happened,” Bauman told NBC. “She never deserved to just disappear in thin air.”
Anyone with information is asked to call the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office Detective Bureau at 636-797-5515.
