More than five months after Lindsey Watts disappeared from Edina, Missouri, court records from investigators’ July search warrants described a trail of vehicle, phone, cellphone-provider and social-media records. No arrests had been announced by the five-month mark, and her family has raised its reward for information to $20,000.
According to NBC News, Watts worked a long shift at the Blessing Center, a dietary services job she held in Edina, on May 19 and had told her father, John Watts, that she could not help him with his mowing business that day because of rain. When he texted her the next morning asking when she might be able to help, she never replied. His granddaughter — Lindsey’s teenage daughter — called him that same day, May 20, to ask if he had seen her mother. That was the first sign something was wrong.
John Watts and his wife went to the house after checking a location-sharing app that showed Watts at home, and searched the property and checked with neighbors before reporting her missing to the Knox County Sheriff’s Office. John told NBC News that there appeared to be no struggle inside. Investigators later recovered Watts’s phone from a ditch south of the property and took it for examination; her wallet, money, car and car keys remained at the house.
Reporting a Missing Person and NamUs
Missouri State Highway Patrol guidance says there is no required waiting period to report someone missing and directs people to contact local police or a sheriff’s office. NamUs is a separate system for missing and unidentified persons cases: according to the National Institute of Justice, law enforcement must enter cases in 17 states, while entry is voluntary elsewhere. The agency cautions that NamUs records do not necessarily include every case.
Search Warrants and Digital Evidence
The Knox County Sheriff’s Office led the investigation, working alongside the Missouri Highway Patrol, the Kirksville Police Department and the Lewis County Sheriff’s Department. In mid-July, investigators executed multiple search warrants, as reported by the Edina Sentinel and WGEM. Court records described records from a 2013 Ford F-150, a black iPhone recovered from the vehicle, multiple cellphone providers and social media accounts, according to WGEM.
The Edina Sentinel reported that those warrant records did not accuse anyone of a crime or establish criminal wrongdoing. Sheriff Carl Knoche told the paper that investigators had identified people of interest without naming them, and said the integrity of the investigation remained his priority. By the five-month mark, the Sentinel noted that no arrests had been announced in connection with Watts’s disappearance.
Family Shares Fears as Search Continues
John Watts told NBC News there has been no activity on his daughter’s accounts since she vanished in May. Her sister, Lacey Watts, told the outlet that the family no longer believes Lindsey is alive. John Watts said the $20,000 reward is meant to bring information about his daughter’s whereabouts, whether she is found dead or alive.
The reward has grown over the months of searching. WGEM reported the family was offering $15,000 in late July, and by October that figure had climbed to $20,000, a sum confirmed again in the November NBC report. Investigators had received more than 360 tips by June, and Sheriff Knoche said in August that hundreds of tips had come in by then, including information from multiple states, the Sentinel reported.
Community On Edge As Hunting Season Approaches
Edina Mayor Linda Kerr told WGEM that the community remains on edge and wants answers. With deer hunting season bringing more people into the wooded areas around Edina, the Watts family is asking hunters to watch for any signs of Lindsey or evidence connected to her case.
Watts is described as having long brown hair, brown eyes and a tattoo of three stars on her right shoulder. Reports have varied on some of her physical details — the Edina Sentinel described her as approximately 5 feet, 2 inches tall, while a Missouri State Highway Patrol missing-person profile lists her height as 5 feet, 1 inch; NBC News reported her height as approximately 5 feet, 3 inches and her weight as about 125 pounds. Accounts of her age at the time she disappeared have also differed, with the Sentinel later reporting she was 34 and turned 35 in September, while an earlier Sentinel report had listed her as 35 when last seen.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Knox County Sheriff’s Office at 660-397-2186.
