Chelsea Grimm attends Pace University in New York to study psychology. She graduates with a master’s degree in social work. Putting her degree to good use, she works for the New York City Department of Education as a social worker. Chelsea Grimm makes a change, heading to the West Coast, and settling in Ocean Beach, California.
Chelsea making plans to meet her parents at a wedding in Connecticut, but when she can’t find an airline that will let her fly with her pet Bearded Dragon, Chelsea decides to make it a road trip, using the travel to take photos of forgotten soldiers and other special people at cemeteries across the country.
On September 24, Chelsea Grimm leaves San Diego and heads for Connecticut.
Three days into her cross-country trip, Grimm arrives in Phoenix, Arizona, where she meets her sister and a friend. Grimm makes plans to meet the same friend for lunch the next day but cancels the plans. On that same day, she stops at a motel in Seligman, about 160 miles north of Phoenix.
The clerk says Grimm seems confused as she tries to book a room, exchanging Euros instead of US Currency. She mentions wanting to be “off-grid” and asks if there are any places in town that would exchange Euros.
From the Seligman motel, Chelsea Grimm calls her parents and tells them she isn’t going to make it to Connecticut on time for the wedding, the trip is taking too long. She tells them she is going to camp out nearby for a couple of days and head back home to San Diego.
The next day, September 28, Grimm leaves the motel and heads 40 miles east to a war memorial cemetery in Williams, Arizona. Williams police are alerted to a suspicious vehicle and when the officer checks, he finds Grimm seated in her car, crying.
She tells the officer she gets emotional taking photos for a lost soldier project and doesn’t want to drive while crying. The officer spends nearly 9 minutes with Grimm and asks if she has a hotel room for the night. She says she is going to camp and the officer directs her not to camp in the city, but she can sleep at Love’s Truck Stop nearby, he tells her she won’t be bothered there
Two days after talking to the police officer in Williams, Arizona, Grimm finds herself 19 miles west of Williams Ash Fork, Arizona. She is camping out in her Ford Focus SUV. A local woodcutter sees Grimm and talks to her for a few minutes, saying she isn’t in distress or need of help. It is September 30. The woodcutter in Ash Fork, Arizona, is the last person to see Chelsea Grimm.
Grimm’s parents report her missing on October 4. The next day, her 2019 White Ford Focus SUV is found abandoned on the side of the road with two flat tires in the middle of Forest Service Road 6 in the Kaibad National Forest, northeast of Ash Fork.
Inside the vehicle, all of Chelsea Grimm’s personal belongings such as her wallet, driver’s license, clothes, sleeping bag, and her bearded dragon are gone. Police say there is no evidence of foul play
The area where Grimm’s locked SUV is found is an area popular with hunters and loggers. An extensive search is conducted of a 3-mile radius around where her car is discovered. Her family believes that due to the intensity of the search, if Chelsea is in the area, she will be found.
Hunters and loggers in the area also strongly believe she is not there. Chelsea Grimm’s family hires a private investigator, Kelly Townsend, to help with the case.
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[Feature Photo via Coconino County Sheriff’s Office]
