ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — It's been nearly three weeks since a St. Augustine woman vanished. The search for her continues in the Ocala National Forest.
Theresa Hartley, 66, was last seen on March 10 leaving her St. Johns County home with a friend and hasn't been seen since. Her roommate reported her missing five days later.
Theresa Hartley's niece says she is desperate to find her.
Law enforcement says foul play isn't suspected, and instead this is now considered a search and rescue mission. However, her niece says she can't help but to feel uneasy about the details reported to police leading up to her disappearance.
"I can't see anyone doing anything terrible to her. She doesn't deserve anything like that," Niece Cara Hartley said. "She's talkative, she really loves animals. She's generous, she would, she would give anybody anything that they needed. She would help anybody."
Theresa Hartley was reported missing nearly two weeks ago. Her roommate says he last saw her leaving her home with a friend in a white dodge pickup truck on March 10.
According to the police report, the friend she was last seen with told police the two left Hartley's home and drove to Lake Delancy in the Ocala National Forest to collect wood when the truck got stuck. Both Theresa Hartley and the friend tried to leave the wooded area on foot to get help. The friend says he told Theresa Hartley to wait inside the truck and he would return with help. After walking for an unknown amount of time, the friend reports to the police, he called his sister who picked him up. Withlacoochee Regional Search and Rescue chief Samuel Matychak says by the time the friend went back for the truck; two days passed.
"Hsaid he just went and picked up the truck and he thought Theresa got a ride home," Search and Rescue Chief Samuel Matychak said.
The report says Theresa Hartley did not have her phone with her and says at the time, both were under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Hartley's niece says, a lot of details are not known.
"I did talk to some of her friends who had seen her more recently, and they said that she was having a lot of memory issues," Hartley said. "I don't understand how someone could leave her in the woods and then just not say anything about it. That's not how people should treat people that they call friends."
Matychak says search and rescue crews have scoured more than 500 acres of the Ocala National Forest, using cadaver and hunting dogs, and crews on foot.
"We have confirmed that she was out there with the truck that was stuck in on an ATV trail," Matychak said.
Cara Hartley says she hopes her aunt is found soon.
"My hope is that the story that the person she was with is true that she became discombobulated and had memory issues and someone picked her up and she didn't know who she was or where she was and that she is somewhere safe with some people who aren't aware that she's missing, who are good-hearted people," Cara Hartley said.
The search for Theresa Hartley continues this weekend. Withlacoochee Regional Search & Rescue is asking volunteers to report to the Command Post at Ocala OHV Trailhead (29.39935° N, 81.80781° W ) on April 1 and 2 at 8 a.m. to help locate Theresa.