Missing Hallsville woman found safe

UPDATE 7/1:Cheryl Nelson returned home Friday and is safe

ORIGINAL STORY 6/30:The Missouri State Highway Patrol and Boone County Sheriff’s Department are looking for a Hallsville-area woman missing since this weekend.

Fifty-year-old Cheryl L. Nelson’s car was found at Cooper’s Landing Thursday, according to Nelson’s daughter, Suzanne Fifer. She last spoke to Nelson last weekend, before her mother went camping at the spot near the Missouri River in Boone County. The sheriff’s department describes her as 5’3″ tall with brown hair and brown eyes. A store clerk at Cooper’s Landing said she thought she saw Nelson at the store Saturday.

“It’s a very vacant feeling suddenly not hearing from her for three or four days,” Fifer told ABC 17 News.

Fifer was joined at Cooper’s Landing by her husband, two children and grandmother as they taped flyers to the counter of the store, leaving others for customers to take and see. Fifer said her mother loved camping there, and last spoke to Nelson about seeing the two kids when she returned.

“Just telling them that she’d see them soon and stuff like that,” Fifer said. “They’re both kind of wondering where grandma’s at, too. So, it’s making it harder than it has to be.”

A Highway Patrol boat drove down the Missouri River Thursday night as part of the search. Fifer said they found Nelson’s phone and purse in her car, parked at Cooper’s Landing. Boone County detective Tom O’Sullivan said Nelson is from the 14000 block of North Davenport Road in the Hallsville area. Fifer said her mother is a Boone County native, Hallsville High School graduate and currently cleans homes in Columbia for a living. Fifer said Nelson sometimes came to Cooper’s Landing with friends, but so far have not heard anything.

“Nothing seemed out of the ordinary,” Fifer said of her mother’s situation. “She’s just not here now.”