MOUNTAIN VIEW, Ark. — The family of a woman who seems to have vanished into thin air continues to wait for any information to help answer the question: What really happened to Linda Brewer?

 

Linda Brewer’s family continues to print flyers and hand them out in the small northern Arkansas town four months after the 44-year-old mother of two officially became a missing person.  

 

“The not knowing is the worst,” said Crystal Wilson, Linda’s younger sister, as she breathed through tears. “It’s just not like her at all. She’s just not one to just leave.” 

 

There aren’t many signs at the moment of answers coming soon. Initially, Linda’s case made headlines around Mountain View. But those have dwindled off as have apparent leads for law enforcement. 

 

“When It first it was happening, everybody was talking about it and now it’s like it’s hush hush nobody says nothing,” Darlene Mullins, Linda’s aunt, said. 

 

The case is odd. According to police, Linda’s husband told them he hasn’t seen her since February. But family members say they spoke to her wit her daughter at Ozark video as late as April 8, 2016. The owner of the shop confirmed the 16-year-old girl had come into the store to return a film on Friday. She never saw Linda, who she assumed was out in the parking lot, speaking to family members. 

 

“It’s been like a living hell. I try to put it in the back of my mind and forget it, but that doesn’t work,” Wilson said. 

 

Linda disappeared from her home without her keys, her purse, a phone or a car. She never picked up her last paycheck from the Stone County Health Department where she had worked as a home health aide. And no one has heard from her since. 

 

“She would not leave without telling somebody,” Mullins said. “She would have told me, her sister, somebody. She wouldn’t have left her daughter behind. That’s the only reason she stayed with him in the first place.” 

 

Linda’s husband, Gregory Brewer, is currently in custody at Stone County jail on charges that are not related to Linda’s disappearance. He faces three counts of terroristic threatening. His brother’s wife told police while she and her daughter were shopping in Walmart they overheard Brewer saying he would kill her husband and their family. 

 

He faces another two counts of possessing material depicting children in sexually explicit ways. Police arrested brewer in mid-April, and the couple’s 16-year-old daughter was placed into foster care. That happened, according to court documents, after police discovered sexual materials involving children inside the home. The affidavit says police were executing a search warrant to determine if foul play was involved in Linda’s disappearance. There are no answers on that front at this point in time. 

 

“It makes my heart hurt. I’m sad, and I’m mad,” Wilson said. “It’s just like she’s fell off the face of the earth.”

 

The Arkansas Crime Information Center has 490 active missing person cases on file in the state. Roughly 250 of those were reported more than a year ago, and 200 of the missing are over the age of 30. But missing adult cases can be more challenging for law enforcement, because adults are allowed to disappear if they so choose. But Linda’s family insists something is wrong, and they’ve been frustrated by what they see as a lack of communication and cooperation from police in Linda’s case. 

 

“My sister, as they would say, is a nobody. I don’t mean that in a bad way. We’re just poor. We don’t have influence,” Wilson said. “We don’t have a lot of money to throw out there to get more help.”

 

A $2,500 reward is currently being offered in Linda’s case. While the state has unveiled new tools for families of the missing to get names and faces out to the public, Linda’s profile has limited information – that doesn’t appear to be updated from the initial information police provided at the outset. Resources for law enforcement aren’t unlimited and some cases go cold. Many families can end up feeling as if they’re the only ones who care. 

 

“I think there’s people out there that know something that needs to come forward,” Wilson said. 

 

KARK, despite numerous phone calls and requests for interviews, has not been able to sit down with the Mountain View Police Department to discuss Linda’s case. Questions the family continues to have include why Arkansas State Police assistance hasn’t been requested; whether leads they developed have been followed up on; if a forensic search of the couple’s property was ever conducted; and a litany of others. According to Brewer’s mother, she was told by the investigator that he would no longer be calling to provide her with updates to Linda’s case. 

 

Because we have not been able to speak to anyone at the Police Department, we have not been able to ask the chief or the investigator about that account. 

 

KARK also received information that a body had been possibly recovered from a river near the Mountain View area. At this point, Linda’s family says they were told of a body having been found, but that they have not been asked to provide identification nor have they heard directly from police that it might be related to Linda’s case. From what they understand, the body has been sent to the State Crime Lab for identification. Again, we cannot confirm that because we have not been able to speak with Mountain View police. 

 

Linda’s family continues searching, at this point, for answers to the questions plaguing their days and nights. The biggest among those: what really became of Linda Brewer?

 

Earlier this year, the Arkansas Attorney General’s office launched a website dedicated to helping find the hundreds of missing people statewide. It also allows families the chance to submit information, such as updated pictures and specific attributes about the missing.

 

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KARK Working 4 You is committed to highlighting issues that are important to Arkansas. If you have a story that needs to be covered, call Reporter Marci Manley on the Working 4 You Tipline at (501) 340-4448 or email at working4you@kark.com.