KFVS12 News & Weather Cape Girardeau, Carbondale, Poplar BluffSearch for Missing Woman

Missing Woman Search
By: CJ Cassidy

POPLAR BLUFF, MO -- It's a case that has investigators shaking their heads. A 74-year old woman who doesn't drive, leaves home unexpectedly and never comes back. The question on everyone's minds now is what happened to Mary Lee Grobe?

Grobe's family is of course extremely worried. Right now they don't know what to expect; mainly because they don't know if she wandered off, if she was abducted, or if she just willingly went off with someone she knew. They say there's just too many possibilities.

"Friends from church come out brought dogs out and every effort has been made. We've knocked on doors asking if anyone's seen her and nothing's turned up," that according to Mary's son David. So the family continues to sit by the phone, hoping for any news of their loved one. Here's what's puzzling: family members found Grobe's diabetes medicine, her glasses, and even her purse left at home; but strangely enough her 150 pound black Lab BB had also vanished. "I don't think a stranger would let her take her dog with her, especially because it was so big and would protect her in any way it could," David tells Heartland News. "that's why I think it was someone she knew."

Something else is also bothering Grobe's family, "My mother was wearing a necklace with an emergency push button on it that would instantly dial an operator in New York if she needed help," David Grobe says. But the call for help was never made, even though the system indicates the necklace is still somewhere close to home.

That's another reason police continue to question everyone close to Mary Grobe. "In the past there's been some disagreement where family members wanted her to live with them," Sheriff Bill Heaton with the Butler County Sheriff's Department says. The Grobe family admits anything's possible; they just want her to come back home. "Without her medication she could be in grave danger," David says.

Again, Sheriff's Deputies in Butler County and Highway Patrol Officers haven't given up the search . Wednesday afternoon they conducted another search in the area around Mary's home both by air and on foot.