A Florida woman is missing in South Carolina, according to the sheriff’s office, and authorities found her empty car, with the keys still inside, on the side of a dirt road in Allendale County Tuesday night.
The caller reported Jessica Lapsis, 27, missing around 8 p.m. on Aug. 13 and gave Allendale County dispatchers an address along a dirt road near Creek Plantation, a private property owned by Martin that is currently used to breed horses, according to the county’s website.
Allendale County Sheriff’s Deputy Stephen Robinson told Fox News Digital it’s still unclear why Lapsis was in the Creek Plantation area on Tuesday.
Robinson, who responded to the scene of Lapsis’ disappearance on the evening of Aug. 13, said the area where authorities found her car was “overly wooded and swampy,” especially since the area had recently received heavy rains.
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Jessica Lapsis has been missing since the evening of August 13th from the Creek Plantation area of Allendale, South Carolina. (Facebook)
“The vehicle was trapped on the tracks and we notified the railroad company, CSX, to halt all trains through the area,” Robinson said.
Authorities also conducted a preliminary check of Lapsis’ vehicle, but “there was no one inside or around the vehicle,” Lobsingson said.
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Lapsis’ vehicle was found Aug. 13 on railroad tracks on a dirt road near Creek Plantation in Allendale County. (Google Maps)
According to the chief deputy sheriff, Creek Plantation employees searched the area on horseback on Tuesday.
“It was dark. … We needed all the help we could get,” he added.
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Jessica Lapsis (right) was photographed out with friends about a week before she disappeared. (Handouts)
The sheriff’s office contacted authorities in neighboring counties, including Hampton County, which responded by sending bloodhounds, and the South Carolina State Law Enforcement Department (SLED) sent a tracking team to the scene Tuesday evening.
Employees of Creek Plantation set out on horseback to search on August 13. (Google Maps)
The Department of Energy’s aviation unit flew two helicopters to the area on Wednesday morning and began a grid search with SLED, Robinson said. The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources also sent a quad bike on Wednesday.
The missing Florida woman, Jessica Lapsis, is described as blonde, blue-eyed and about 5 feet 6 inches tall. (Facebook)
According to the Allendale County website, the Creek Plantation area consists of 2,526 acres of “forested and open space used for agriculture.”
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Lapsis is described as a 27-year-old woman with blonde hair and blue eyes, and is approximately 5 feet 6 inches tall.
Anyone with information about her disappearance is asked to call 803-584-7067 or the Communications non-emergency line at 803-584-8152.
