Federal, state and local officials this week closed the 618-acre Sugarcreek MetroPark to search for evidence in the disappearance of Chelsey Coe, 25, who was reported missing last August.
“There’s nothing concrete that says she’s here,” Miamisburg Sgt. Jeff Muncy said Wednesday. “This is just one lead we’re investigating and we’re trying to do it thoroughly to find her.”
Muncy said information leads police to believe the park may have been one of the last places Coe was seen.
Social media users were quick to speculate if Coe’s disappearance is related to the four Middletown women as well as Amber Whitmer, a 30-year-old who went missing in June 2016 from Springfield.
In March, Middletown Police Maj. Scott Reeve said there was no evidence that the disappearances of Coe and Whitmer were connected to the Middletown cases.
On Wednesday, he had the same answer.
“There is no indication they are connected,” Reeve told the Journal-News, but he said the department is aware of the search for evidence in the Coe case.
The four women missing from Middletown are:
- Brandy English, 41, missing May 11, 2016
- Amber Flack, 30, missing Sept. 1, 2016
- Melinda (Oney) Miller, 47, missing Feb. 19, 2017
- Michelle Burgan, 47, missing May 16, 2017
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All four of those women have a shared history of prostitution, Reeve told the Journal-News.
“It is really difficult to find these ladies or even information on them because in some cases that don’t have permanent addresses and move around. And (they have) a history of prostitution that makes them vulnerable,” Reeve said.
A run-in with law enforcement may be the first police hear about the women, he said.
The Middletown Police Department enlisted the help of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation for leads on the women’s whereabouts.
Information from BCI led detectives to Florida and Kentucky a few months ago on leads of English’s whereabouts, but officials did not find her.
Detectives say it is possible English’s disappearance is related to the death of Lindsay Bogan, who went missing from Middletown two years ago and whose skeletal remains were found in July 2016 on a Madison Twp. farm. Her death remains unsolved.
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English made it known to others she was helping police in their investigation of Bogan’s then-disappearance, police told the Journal-News in 2016. There have been no sightings of English since May 2016.
“We hear theories and rumors all the time … We don’t get any first-hand information and that is what we need,” Reeve said.
This article contains additional reporting by staff writers Kara Driscoll and Nick Blizzard.
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