NORFOLK, Va. – A Norfolk detective is renewing efforts to uncover what happened to Sharon Ivy Jones, a Norfolk mother who mysteriously disappeared more than 20 years ago.
“We haven't forgotten about her,” Detective Jonathan Smith said, who shared the department’s updated efforts after News 3 investigators asked about Jones’ case as part of WTKR’s Have You Seen Me series.
“I don't think Sharon up and left a daughter that she loved,” said Smith. “I think Sharon was taken against her will. The question is, by who?”
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Jones, who attended Norfolk State University and worked as a teacher’s assistant at Lynnhaven Elementary School, was last seen on September 22, 2002. She was 33 years old.
According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, she attended a friend's wedding and later joined friends at a dance party. She was last seen driving her red Toyota Tercel on Interstate 64 westbound from Chesapeake Boulevard. Jones was reported missing after she failed to pick up her two-year-old daughter from the girl’s father.
When police arrived at Jones' home, her car was parked in her assigned space in front of the former Breezy Point Apartments at 8600 Glen Myrtle Avenue in Norfolk. Her apartment door was unlocked. Her parents also found the clothes their daughter was last seen wearing inside the apartment.
“It appeared more to be indicative of a crime scene staging as opposed to a struggle,” said Detective Smith. “There was a table on top of her bed that appeared that it could have been placed there.”
Smith continued, “There were a lot of items scattered across the apartment floor. The contents of her purse had been distributed across the couch. The phone line had been pulled out. There were a number of suitcases that were in various parts of the apartment.”
Smith said there was no blood detected in Jones' apartment, and there were no fingerprints found of anyone unknown to her.
Jones' daughter, according to NamUs, went to live with Jones’ parents in New Jersey. NamUs also reports that Jones’ parents and younger sister traveled back and forth from New Jersey and Virginia to search for Jones, but the sister died in 2003.
Detective Smith said he's had trouble finding Jones’ family members recently, and hopes they see these reports. Police have not named a person of interest in Jones' disappearance. They are asking anyone with information to call the Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP.
