By Seamus McGraw
(Continued)
A wrong turn at Independence
The road that led to Fox's disappearance seems to have dead-ended just outside the small town of Independence.
According to Somes, Fox recently received a fairly large check, a payout for a nerve injury she had sustained in her hands after seven years of typing at a nearby insurance firm where she had worked since graduating high school. Because she did not have a checking account, she stuffed a large amount of the cash into her pocketbook and 11 days ago, headed toward the desert.
On her way, she telephoned her boyfriend, Somes said. Yes, she wanted to take a breather from the pressures of her life, to get away from home, but she certainly had no intention of severing her ties for long. She was, Somes said, devoted to her 5-year-old son, and loyal to her friends and family, and on the night before she disappeared, she even called her boyfriend.
 |
| Independence California w Rt 395 passing through |
"She said, 'Hey I'm heading up here, I'm not exactly sure where I'm at, I'm on the 395,'" Somes said, and she asked her boyfriend to join her. "He said, 'You know it's kind of far, why don't you just come home?' and she did."
The way Somes understands it, Fox spent the night at a nearby lake and the next day set off for home. She never made it. "I think she was just at the wrong place in the wrong time," Somes said.
By midafternoon on June 24, Fox had made it to the small town if Independence, he said. She dallied there for a brief time, though she was in town long enough for at least one witness to take note of her. According to Somes, that witness told the investigators for the Inyo County Sheriff's Department that the young woman seemed distraught. Whether it was the divorce, or the stress of traveling or something else that was troubling her, the reason for Fox's emotional state remains unclear.
What is clear is that a short time later and a few miles out of town, Fox would have good reason to become upset.
As far as anyone can tell, the young woman, who was not familiar with the local area, made a wrong turn. Instead of returning to the highway, she took the wrong road out of town, and in due course, ran out of pavement. "Why she didn't turn around at that point is beyond us," Somes said.
Next Page
Previous Page
For more daily crime news
default
increase
decrease
email
print
