The body of a 33-year-old Missouri mom has been found more than five months after she was reported missing, authorities said.
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office confirmed in a Tuesday, Oct. 1, news releasethat Emily Strite’s remains had been discovered in a wooded area in De Soto.
“On September 28th, Deputies responded to a wooded area near the 4100 block of Frissell Road in De Soto for a report of human skeletal remains found by the property owner,” authorities said.
“Through comparison to medical and dental records, investigators with the Regional Medical Examiner’s Office determined that the remains are those of Emily Strite,” the release added of the missing woman, who was last seen on the morning of April 12, the sheriff’s office previously confirmed. She was reported missing by her mother, Charlyn, on April 20.
“At this time, Strite’s cause of death is undetermined, and investigators are working to learn how her body ended up where it was found,” the police release on Oct. 1 stated.
Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office Public Safety Information Coordinator Grant Bissell told PEOPLE in a statement that “there is no indication of foul play in either her disappearance or her death. So, without a crime, there can’t be a suspect.”
“This is an ongoing investigation, and our office hopes to uncover the truth about Emily Strite’s case,” Bissell said.
The sheriff’s office previously said Strite had been “on foot” and was “believed to have been leaving the area of her own free will” in a missing person’s post shared on Facebook on April 25.
The last time the mother and daughter spoke was on the morning of April 12. “She said, ‘I’m going to go see my kids.’ ” Charlyn says Emily had been staying with a friend in De Soto, Missouri, about a 30-minute drive south of where Charlyn lives,” NBC News reported. “Three of Emily’s four children live with their father, Steve Fults, over the Missouri border in Cahokia, Illinois.”
But Charlyn said that she got worried when Fults called on April 19 to say he hadn’t seen or heard from her.
Charlyn told Dateline that Emily was “the most happy person. The most caring person.”
Anyone with information is asked to call the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office Detective Bureau at 636-797-5515.
