Daughter holds out hope to find missing mom
Atwood woman on national missing persons website
Steve Short / 2005-07-26
Phelecia Morris is taking it one day at a time.
But the days keep passing.
And hope is a little harder to come by.
Morris, who lives in Sitka and with her husband, Tony operates the M & M Farm & Garden Supply in Milan, has spent the last nine months anxiously waiting for some news about her mother.
Janie Sue Lindsey, 56, of Atwood has been missing since Oct. 10, 2004 and is now classified as an “endangered missing adult.”
“It’s been very hard,” said Morris. “I have people ask every day if I’ve found my mother. I take it one day at a time. You just try to have as much hope as you can that something will turn up.”
This month Lindsey’s photograph, description and case information were placed on the National Center for Missing Adults Internet website (
http://www.theyaremissed.org).
Lindsey was last seen at the Murphy USA gas station next to the Wal-Mart Supercenter near Veterans Drive in Huntingdon at approximately 6 p.m. Oct. 10. She was driving a 1983 white, four-door Lincoln Town Car with a burgundy vinyl top. The car was found abandoned three days later near the intersection of Grooms Road and Bobbitt Road between Huntingdon and Camden in Carroll County.
Ironically, Phelecia’s maiden name was Grooms, but there is no known connection with the road name. “When they told us the name of the road was ‘Grooms,’ I said, ‘You’re kidding,’” recalled Phelecia.
Morris’ brother, Phil Grooms lives in Trenton. Lindsey had four grandchildren.
Cedar Grove house searched
Phelecia Morris talked to her mother on the phone the day Lindsey disappeared.
“She said she was going to come over to see her grandkids,” said Morris. She was not sure whether her mother intended to come over later that day or later in the week.
The Carroll Co. Sheriff’s Dept. and the TBI have both investigated the case. A house on Hwy 424 near Cedar Grove was searched by the TBI, but no evidence was released.
The house belongs to a man described as an “acquaintance” of Lindsey.
There have been no suspects named publicly in the case, said Morris. Lindsey’s husband is not a suspect, Morris added. A man who reportedly had been driving Lindsey’s car was questioned by law enforcement officials. Morris is reluctant to say much publicly about her suspicions for fear that it could jeopardize the case.
“In my heart I know who had something to do with it,” said Morris. “I know she wouldn’t have run off. My mom came up missing at the same time of several other murders in Carroll County. They have found people in those other cases. They had about seven murders in seven weeks.”
“I’m hoping that somebody will come forward,” she added. “I believe that somebody has to know something. I’m trying to do my best to let people know that she is still missing.”
Morris arranged for her mother to be included on the national website.
Anyone with information about Lindsey’s disappearance is asked to contact Morris at her business phone, 731-686-2733.
Woman ran Atwood restaurant
The missing woman, Janie Lindsey, previously owned an Atwood restaurant called P.J.’s. At the time she was Janie Grooms. Her husband Pete Grooms died in 1994.
“My mom was real nervous after he died,” said Phelecia. After Phelecia and her husband Tony began operating the M & M store on N. First in Milan, Lindsey often worked at the store. She also helped care for her parents in Atwood.
"I just want to find her," Morris said in a Carroll Co. newspaper story. "I really miss her – she was my best friend – and her grandkids really miss her too."
The Lindsey disappearance is Case # 1012041545 NCIC #: M-354358561 filed by the Carroll Co. Sheriff’s Dept. (731) 986-8947 Alternate Phone: (800) 824-3463. The Sheriff is Bendell Bartholomew.
Janie Lindsey’s description
Name: Janie Sue Lindsey, 56. Missing since Oct. 10, 2004. Lindsey is described as a white female, 5 ft. 11 in. tall, 100 pounds. She has light brown, graying hair and green eyes. She was wearing glasses with bronze colored frames and a light colored t-shirt with dark colored shorts. She has a scar on top of her right hand, a previously fractured collarbone and previously fractured foot, an appendectomy scar, a vaccination scar on her left arm, and pierced ears. She had a gold ring with two topaz stones and a gold ring with a cluster of diamonds.
http://www.milanmirrorexchange.com/
