CLAY COUNTY, Fla. — Pat Ritchie doesn't think her next-door neighbor, Susan Mauldin, would disappear without a trace.
"She would have never gone away, just gone away," Ritchie said.
After learning the FBI began searching the Chesser Island Road Landfill in Folkston, Georgia this week, she said she is thankful for their search efforts. She said it gives her a glimmer of hope in learning details about Mauldin's sudden disappearance.
"I would be grateful because I know she's not alive," she said. "She would be here if she was alive."
Mauldin was last seen in her Harbor Island neighborhood in late October. Clay County deputies named Corey Binderim a person of interest.
He was doing remodeling work on Mauldin's home. He was arrested in December in Duval County on a forgery charge unrelated to her disappearance. Ritchie says she's thankful law enforcement agencies are putting a focus on finding her.
"Maybe they just didn't want us to know," she said. "But, it didn't seem like they were doing anything for a long time."
The Clay County Sheriff's Office released a statement Friday about another location of interest: the Rosemary Hill Solid Waste Management Facility, but they couldn't comment on why it was on their radar or if anything was found.
Ritchie placed flowers on Mauldin's front walk to let her know someone was thinking of her.
"Just because maybe Sue could see them," she said. "I lost my husband and I believe he sees. So, that's why. We loved her."
The FBI says search teams are tentatively scheduled to continue to look through the landfill next week.
