The mother of a missing Georgia woman is hoping that an increased reward fund will lead to information on her daughter, who disappeared in June from a town located around 57 miles northwest of Atlanta.
“Jessica spent her life trying to make everyone around her happy in any way she could. It’s beyond my comprehension that her life has been reduced to a menial monetary value,” Sandee King, mother of missing Haralson County woman, Jessica Earl, told CrimeOnline.
Although she finds it distasteful to put a monetary value on obtaining information, King is willing to do whatever it takes to find out what happened to her daughter. She took out a loan and applied it to a reward fund to find her daughter. The amount was then matched by a company that wishes to remain anonymous.
“Our family struggles daily, her absence weighing heavy on our hearts and minds. I cannot close my eyes without seeing her face. Her nieces and her children cry at the mention of her name. I am begging someone, anyone to please come forward and give us the information we need to bring Jessica home and give us some kind of closure. No one deserves this kind of pain.”
The reward is offered to anyone with credible information that leads to the “arrest and conviction of the person or persons involved and the recovery of Jessica.” Anyone with information is urged to contact the Haralson County Sherriff’s Department at 770-646-2011.
Updated flyer to show reward increase as of 8/27/18. Please, share! Anonymous tips can be submitted also at: www.thesaam.org
Posted by West Georgia Missing & Unidentified by The SAAM on Monday, August 27, 2018
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Seth Odom, 36, remains behind bars on a felony probation violation for a previous conviction of grand theft auto. A woman he reportedly dated, Jessica Victoria Earl, 31, of Tallapoosa, has been missing singe June 8. Odom was allegedly the last person to see Earl. Upon his arrest, Odom immediately requested an attorney and stopped speaking with investigators. Odom is not currently charged with Earl’s disappearance.
A few days after his arrest, Odom reportedly decided to talk. He allegedly told authorities that Earl was using drugs the last time he saw her, and that he had “no knowledge” of her whereabouts. Odom reportedly told detectives that he last saw Earl walking into the wooded area in Tallapoosa, a town around 60 miles west of Atlanta, to search for arrowheads.
According to 11Alive, Odom said he last saw Earl on June 8, the day she vanished and activity ceased on her cellphone. Odom explained to police that Earl could still be using drugs and “hiding out.”
CrimeOnline spoke with King, who explained that she felt Odom was lying to cover his tracks. The worried mother said Earl called a friend in a panic the same day she disappeared, afraid that Odom would hurt her.
“She was not on drugs. She called to best friend in the midst of having a panic attack begging for a ride away from there. She was hysterical and the police have already confirmed the phone calls to her friend through her phone records. She wasn’t looking for arrowheads, she was looking for a ride because he was wouldn’t give her the keys back to the car she borrowed from the same friend she called.”
Witnesses also confirmed that Earl and Odom were fighting on the day she disappeared, 11 Alive reports, and that Earl tried to retrieve the car keys and leave when Odom allegedly hid them.
King said that her daughter had gotten a refund check from the IRS for $5,463 four days before she disappeared. Earl reportedly gave Odom $500 to buy her son a 4-Wheeler ATV, but when Odom failed to purchase it and refused to give Earl her money back, the pair got into a fight, according to King.
Odom and Earl met around one month before she vanished. She reportedly wanted to leave Odom after learning he was “armed and dangerous” and had an extensive criminal history. Shortly after her disappearance, Odom went into hiding.For weeks, Haralson County authorities, the GBI, and the Paulding-Haralson Drug Task Force searched for Odom, but had no luck locating him. Numerous people have been arrested for allegedly helping Odom evade capture.
Odom’s mother, Deanna Ann Smith, 56, of Heflin, was arrested in June for reportedly giving police a false statement. Authorities also arrested Tyla Toliver, 31, and Candy Chandler, 40, for allegedly giving Odom a ride on June 21 to a residence in Villa Rica, Georgia, with the knowledge that authorities were looking for him. According to the police, Tyler and Chandler never contacted authorities to disclosed Odom’s whereabouts.
Odom turned himself in voluntarily.
While it’s unclear why Odom decided to turn himself in, authorities reported he had a snake bite on his leg with an infected wound when he surrendered. He was taken to a local hospital for treatment before being transferred to jail.
Meanwhile, King arrived to Haralson County from Louisiana in June, in hopes of joining a search party to locate her daughter. King told CrimeOnline, however, that Sheriff Mixon with the Haralson County Sheriff’s Department threatened to throw her in jail, despite private property owners giving her permission to search their land. According to King, Mixon told her she was “hindering the investigation and will be arrested if you search any property (even if we have the owners permission).”
Further, King alleged that Mixon told her to go back to Louisiana and let his officers take care of the search.<em>CrimeOnline</em> reached out to Mixon, but he was not immediately available for comment.In addition to the $13,000 reward fund, GBI is currently offering a $1,000 reward for any information that leads to the whereabouts of Earl. She’s a white female who stands 5-feet-5-inches tall and weighs around 120 pounds. She has brown hair and green/hazel eyes.
[Feature Photo: Jessica Earl and Sandee King/Provided]
