West Frankfort, Ill. woman missing for 5 years, family asks for answers

WEST FRANKFORT, Ill. (KFVS) - Lauren Pree has not been seen since September 20, 2018.

Lauren’s family and friends have not given up hope.

Her sister said the last sighting of Lauren happened when she got on social media, asking for a ride. After that, she left the house, and has not been heard from since.

“It’s just really hard to believe that there’s nothing,” Samantha Constantine, Lauren’s older sister said.

Five years after her disappearance, Constantine said she can’t believe it.

“She went missing in 2018 and she had a cell phone with her and it’s just, I can’t wrap my head around how we don’t have a clue as to what happened,” Constantine said.

West Frankfort Police Captain Richard Bernardini is one of the detectives on this case. He said they were able to track her phone.

“The evidence in the case says she went to Mount Vernon and we have nothing once she got to Mount Vernon,” Captain Bernardini said.

He said the case is still open, with tips coming in regularly.

“We’ve ran cadaver dogs around properties, we’ve ran every lead that we know to run,” the Captain said.

Some of those tips have come as far away as Chicago.

“But we have had zero luck finding anything,” Bernardini said.

“And then it’s like it just sort of fell off, which has been hard,” Constantine said.

Constantine said she still holds on to a little piece of Lauren through her daughters.

“They’re so much like her, both of them in different ways,” Lauren’s sister said. “And I don’t even know how much they’ll remember her since they were so young when she went missing.”

She and her family are begging anyone who may know anything to come forward.

“Someone has to know something, there’s just no way it’s a complete mystery,” Constantine said.

Anyone with information surrounding Lauren’s disappearance is asked to contact the West Frankfort Police Department.

Captain Bernardini said they still have a TIPS line open and follow up on any and all tips they receive.

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