Video: A Noxubee County Mystery

NOXUBEE COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – It’s been a little over a year since a Noxubee County woman vanished, leaving behind a chilling mystery.

74-year old Lucy Wilborn Townsend was last seen walking along Highway 14 before she disappeared.

When Townsend went missing last July, many agencies and residents were searching all over the county, but with very few leads, the search was suspended. However, the investigation hasn’t stopped.

This dirt road is the last place Lucy Townsend was seen, leaving the county with its only unsolved missing persons case.

The active search crews are gone, but that doesn’t mean the Noxubee County Sheriff’s Department is giving up on the case.

“We get people in. We’re still asking questions. We’re still stabbing at it. We’re still talking to people, and we will come up with new leads from time to time that we will try to track down, and we’re just hoping that maybe some of that pans out, but we’re still looking, and we’re still trying,” says Sheriff Terry Grassaree.

Days running into nights, and nights running into days. That’s what it feels like trying to crack an unsolved case in a department with only a handful of deputies, all juggling other duties.

“I have one chief investigator, and on that he works accidents, he works domestics, and he works all the time, you know, so we’re going to have to work on this, and work on that, and then come back on that because I only have 7,” says Grassaree.

Grassaree says that cases mark your reputation in law enforcement, showcasing how you do your job.

“I can solve twenty and miss one, and that would be the one that gets me, so I’m obligated and focused on every case that comes up, I’ve got to solve. It’s no win, loose, or draw, it’s you got to win it.”

The case is over a year old, but it’s not considered a cold case.

“It’s hard on everybody involved, mainly the family, and right now, you don’t have anything to tell the family, and all the law enforcement, I know for a fact that they have worked hard around the clock on that case, and I have been helping them on the case myself, but still have turned up no body, no remains, no anything,” says Noxubee County Coroner R.L. Calhoun.

Grassaree says missing persons cases are nerve-racking.

“When somebody leaves like that, it scares the public. There’s so much going on this day and time in America ’til it scares the public, and they want this person caught if somebody’s done something to her, no matter who he is, if he’s done something, they want to find her to find out what happened. People don’t just vanish.”

If you have any information, or know anything about the disappearance of Lucy Townsend, contact the Noxubee County Sheriff’s Department.