Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
After three days of combing the wilderness, authorities examine whether she might have left in another vehicle.
By TAMARA LUSH and LISA GREENE
© St. Petersburg Times, published April 17, 2001
NEW PORT RICHEY -- Detectives searching for a Safety Harbor mother suffering from postpartum depression are investigating the possibility that the woman left the area in an unidentified vehicle.
For the past three days, searchers have combed J.B. Starkey Wilderness Park with helicopters, all-terrain vehicles and body-sniffing dogs, hoping to find 41-year-old Janet Gifford-Meyers, reported missing Friday night.
Trained dogs detected Gifford-Meyers' scent in and around her vehicle, found at the park. But the trail went cold not far from her Nissan Pathfinder, said Pasco sheriff's spokesman Kevin Doll.
That's what led authorities to wonder whether she got out of her own vehicle and climbed into another.
Doll refused to discuss the possibility and continued to say that foul play is not involved in the disappearance. A limited search, handled by Pasco deputies, will resume today.
Pinellas sheriff's deputies, meanwhile, will scrutinize cell phone records, credit card purchases and bank statements in hopes of locating her, said spokesman Greg Tita.
Gifford-Meyers, who was on leave from her job as a senior manager for the Pinellas County Economic Development Department, gave birth to a girl three weeks ago.
Her husband, Steven Meyers, said she had an especially difficult and emotional third trimester.
"Doctors told me not to expect her to be herself for a few weeks," said Meyers, whose family is helping him care for the infant and the couple's 2-year-old son.
Meyers last saw his wife on Friday, when she left the house at 8 a.m. to attend a group therapy session at Morton Plant Mease Health Care in Clearwater.
Sometime before her disappearance, Gifford-Meyers made a phone call to a person in her therapy group, Pinellas sheriff's spokesman Tita said Sunday.
Gifford-Meyers was wearing a long, black floral skirt and was carrying a bag of running clothes, Meyers said.
But she didn't show up at her therapy session, and her husband reported her missing at 5:50 p.m. to the Pinellas County Sheriff's office.
Gifford-Meyers' Nissan Pathfinder was found in a parking lot of the wilderness park about 9 p.m. Friday. Authorities found several items inside, including a cell phone, Gifford-Meyers' purse and directions to J.B. Starkey Wilderness Park.
For many, the disappearance came as a shock.
Kay Daly, who works for Gifford-Meyers at the Pinellas County Economic Development Department, threw a baby shower for her boss just two days before the baby -- named Rebekah -- was born. She also visited her friend in the hospital.
"She was so excited she had a baby girl, she just couldn't stand it," Daly said. Steven Meyers, who is an oceanographic research specialist at the University of South Florida, said three days after the birth, his wife would call the baby "my little rosebud" and appeared happy.
But Gifford-Meyers' spirits soon plummeted, her husband said.
"She was afraid and intimidated by the baby," he said. "She started withdrawing and was uncommunicative."
Gifford-Meyers' depression became so intense that she checked herself into Mease Countryside Hospital for four days. She left the hospital Thursday, one day before she disappeared.
Rich Hickman, senior manager for business marketing at the department where she worked, said Gifford-Meyers' disappearance doesn't fit her usual behavior. "She has an organized, logical approach to issues," he said.
In between dozens of phone calls on Monday, Meyers told a reporter what he would say to his wife -- if he could. "Whatever you need, whatever you want, we can work it out," Meyers said. "We'll solve this one together."
Anyone with information should contact the Pasco County Sheriff's Office toll-free at (800) 854-2862.
- Staff writer Bryan Gilmer and researcher Kitty Bennett contributed to this report.