HEATHER WOODWARD - 17 yo - East Alton (NW of St Louis) IL

Teen missing along with her stepmother; cases connected?

Police need help in finding a missing 17-year-old East Alton
girl whose mother vanished last week in Alton after getting off work.Police
are asking for the public's help in locating Heather Woodward of East
Alton. The teen is the stepdaughter of Bonnie Woodward, who last was
seen Friday in the parking lot at her place of employment near Upper
Alton.As the Alton Police Department continued its search for
Bonnie Woodward, East Alton police were working hard to find the
"We need to find her and talk to her," Police Chief Dwynn
Isringhausen said.Isringhausen said although he doesn't believe
the two cases are related, he would feel better knowing the teenager's
location."First, we need to know that she's safe, and second,
there are questions we need to ask her about what she may or may not
know about her mother's disappearance," Isringhausen said.Isringhausen
said that Bonnie Woodward reported Heather Woodward as a runaway to
police on June 17. He said that Bonnie Woodward told police that her
daughter had left home and was staying at the home of a female teacher."She
wanted her daughter to come home, and (Heather) didn't want to,"
Isringhausen said.He said that police questioned the teacher and
even searched her home. He said the girl no longer is staying with the
teacher, who told police she didn't know Heather's whereabouts."She
is doing everything she can to help us find Heather," Isringhausen
said.Authorities said that the teen's father died nearly 10 years
ago, and Bonnie Woodward adopted the girl following his death. Heather
is 5 feet 5 inches tall with a thin build, brown hair and brown eyes.Heather
recently graduated from East Alton-Wood River High School and is
planning to attend college in the fall.Anyone with information
about Heather's whereabouts is asked to contact East Alton police at (618) 259-6212.

Also Tuesday, Alton police continued looking into
the disappearance of Bonnie Woodward, 48, who last was seen talking to a
man driving a silver/gray Chevrolet Malibu in the parking lot of Eunice
Smith Nursing Home, 1251 College Ave.Bonnie Woodward is 5 feet 7
inches tall and weighs 240 pounds with blonde hair and green eyes. She
last was seen wearing yellow scrubs pants and a yellow and white scrub
top.Lt. Scott Golike, chief of detectives for the Alton Police
Department, said that witnesses reported seeing Woodward talking to a
white man in his mid-40s who had brown hair with gray along his temples.Woodward
has worked as a certified nursing assistant at the nursing home for the
past 27 years. She lives with her boyfriend, Gary Wilmurth, in East
Alton.Golike said Woodward has not used her cell phone, credit
cards or any other electronic devices since vanishing.Family
members reported that Heather Woodward was
safe, but they wouldn't say where she was located. Relatives also said
that police seized computer equipment from Bonnie Woodward's East Alton
home.Friends and relatives searched Rock Spring Park again on
Tuesday in hopes of finding Bonnie Woodward. Alton police also searched
the area with a K9 unit.Anyone with information about Bonnie
Woodward's whereabouts is asked to call the Alton Police Department at 463-3505 ext. 250.

It's now been a week since 48 year old Bonnie
Woodward of East Alton was last seen, and police are expressing
frustration at the lack of leads.
Alton Police Lt. Scott Golike says detectives have spent the last week
interviewing friends, co-workers, former co-workers, ex-husbands,
ex-boyfriends, but to no avail.

Adding to the mystery is the fact that Woodward's teen-aged daughter,
who had moved in with a former female teacher of hers is also missing.
Golike says so far there's no connection between the cases, but they're
not ruling that out.
Golike says the key to finding Woodward is still locating the car driven by the
man she was seen with after work last Friday
afternoon, a gray four door Malibu.
He says if you know anyone who drives or has driven that kind of car,
call police.

The man seen with Woodward is white, about 45 with brown hair with gray
temples.

Woodward's family is offering a $5,000 reward for the information that
finds Bonnie.

A teenager sought for questioning
after the disappearance of her stepmother was located Saturday, but
police are no closer to locating the mother herself.
Heather Woodward turned herself in at the East Alton Public Library
on Saturday, ending at least one phase of a mystery that has occupied
police since the June 25 disappearance of her stepmother, Bonnie
Woodward, 48, of East Alton.
Police had considered Heather a runaway - not a suspect - and after
talking to her Saturday believe that her own disappearance was a
coincidence. Heather had been reported missing by Bonnie Woodward on
June 17.
"It's more coincidental than anything," Alton Police Lt. Scott Golike
said. "More typical of a runaway, unhappy at home type thing."
Bonnie Woodward's disappearance, however, is considered suspicious.
She was last seen talking to a man outside the Eunice Smith Nursing Home
in Alton where she worked. Since that time there has been no clue to
her whereabouts including no record of use of her cellphone, credit
cards or financial records.
"We are still looking for this gray four-door Malibu and the white
male," Golike said. "That's what we really need."
Golike acknowledged that some investigators wondered if Bonnie
Woodward was purposely staying undercover in an attempt to get her
daughter to come home. That theory now does not appear to have merit.
Heather Woodward turned 18 on Saturday, he said.
At one point the teen had been staying with a female teacher, whose
home was subsequently searched. By that time Heather had disappeared
again, until Saturday, police said.
Authorities said that the teen's father died nearly 10 years ago, and
Bonnie Woodward adopted the girl following his death.
Jordan Rodgers was working the library's front desk when Heather
walked in around 10 Saturday morning and asked her to call the police.
"I realized she was the girl who's been missing for some time. She
said, 'You might have heard of me, I was in the paper," Rodgers said.
Library director Richard Chartrand said he recognized her immediately
and asked a staff member to "go into mother mode and sit with her.
(Heather) has been coming here since she was a kid and I think she knew
it was a safe place."
Police responded quickly, said Maury Reynolds, who sat with Heather
as she waited for officers to arrive. "They were there just a minute
later and were very protective of her."
According to the library staff, Heather Woodward had several pieces
of luggage with her, including one that Reynolds described as a
"carpetbag." As Heather waited for police, she clutched a teddy bear.
"We didn't want to press her because she was very upset and had tears
in her eyes. She said, 'Today is my birthday.' I guess maybe she wanted
to be home," Reynolds said. "I told her I had been praying for her and
will continue to pray for her mother."
Bonnie Woodward is 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighs 240 pounds with
blonde hair and green eyes. She last was seen wearing yellow scrubs
pants and a yellow and white scrub top.
Golike said witnesses reported seeing Woodward talking to a white man
in his mid-40s who had brown hair with gray along his temples.
Alton Police Chief David Hayes said detectives have worked
continuously on the Woodward case almost from the beginning.
"There is no evidence to indicate foul play, but the more time that
goes by the more concerned we are," he said.
Anyone with information about Bonnie Woodward's whereabouts is asked
to call the Alton Police Department at (618) 463-3505 ext. 250. A reward
of $5,000 has been offered for information that leads police to the
missing woman.

Three people have been charged with
crimes for allegedly aiding in the voluntary disappearance of a
teenager whose stepmother is separately missing under suspicious circumstances.
Police said there is no known connection between the cases of
Heather Woodward, 18, who resurfaced July 3, and Bonnie Woodward,
48, who has been missing since June 25.

Bonnie Woodward

On Friday, Madison County prosecutors charged Christine M.
Scheffel, 41, of East Alton, with obstructing justice, a felony.
Scheffel allegedly lied to a police officer on June 28 about
Heather Woodward's whereabouts.
Officials charged Roger W. Carroll, 44, and Monica Carroll, 44,
with harboring a runaway, a misdemeanor. Heather Woodward allegedly
stayed at the Carrolls' home in rural Jersey County from June 17 through July 3.
Alton police Sgt. Jerry Cooley said Scheffel is a teacher at
East Alton-Wood River High School, and the Carrolls are friends of Scheffel.
Cooley said that not knowing the girl's whereabouts — or that
she was safe — necessitated needless work for Alton and East Alton
police and other law enforcement agencies.
"We put a lot of man-hours into looking for Heather," Cooley
said. He said police had to treat both disappearances as
potentially involving foul play and possibly linked. If Heather was
safe, he said, police needed to know if she had any information
that would help detectives determine what happened to Bonnie Woodward.
As it turned out, the teen has not shed any light on her
stepmother's disappearance and police have not established any link, Cooley said.
Police continue to investigate the whereabouts of Bonnie Woodward.
Heather Woodward was 17 when Bonnie Woodward reported her
missing in June. After turning 18, Heather Woodward walked into the
East Alton Public Library on July 3 and said police were looking
for her. She apparently had left home voluntarily and was unharmed.
Bonnie Woodward, of East Alton, a longtime employee of the
Eunice Smith Nursing Home, on College Avenue in Alton, was last
seen by co-workers talking to a man on the parking lot there.
Police said Bonnie Woodward's car was left on the lot with its
windows down, and that her cell phone and credit cards have not been used.
Anyone with information about Bonnie Woodward is asked to call
police at 618-463-3505, Ext. 250.