NORTHAMPTON COUNTY

Mother of 3 Goes Missing After Leaving Day Care Center

The disappearance of a Pennsylvania mother of three could be a criminal matter, according to the Northampton County District Attorney.

Jessica Padgett, 33, of Whitehall Township was last seen Friday around noon leaving her job at the Duck Duck Goose Child Care center on Canal Street in Northampton. Northampton D.A. John Morganelli told NBC10 officials are treating the woman's disappearance as a criminal matter, mainly because she hasn't reached out to anyone, not even her husband, children or parents, since she went missing.

"They are treating this as a top priority," Morganelli said. "[[We're doing]] interviews with anybody that had any contact with her. It means obtaining surveillance video of areas where we think she was last seen in the borough of Northampton. That's been reviewed." 

Police found Padgett’s phone and her vehicle at the Dollar General parking lot on 2016 Main Street in Northampton, about a mile away from the day care center. Padgett was nowhere to be found however.

Padgett’s husband told police he last heard from her on the phone around 1 p.m. Friday.

Padgett's youngest child is enrolled at the day care where she works and was there when she went missing. Padgett recently got married in September and would never leave her three children, according to her sister Kristi Davis.

"She wouldn't just not go back to work," said Davis. "They're not sure if she was taken, if she left on her own or if she knew the person. There wasn't a sign of a struggle. So we're not sure what happened." 

Since Padgett's disappearance, friends and family have posted fliers and created a Facebook page as the search continues.

"This is not something that happened at night," said Jim Wilkins, a friend and neighbor of Padgett's who is leading the search effort. "This was smack dab in the middle of the day. The community needs to be made aware because somebody out there knows something."

Padgett is described as a white woman standing 5-foot-4 and weighing 130 pounds with brown hair and hazel eyes. She also has a tattoo of a footprint on her shoulder. She was last seen wearing a hooded sweatshirt from her Duck Duck Goose Day Care with the day care's logo on the front.

"They're a wonderful family," said Padgett's co-worker Marrelle Deppe. "Just a normal, all-around good family. Again, you never think something like this would happen. Looking back now I wish we would've just taken a couple extra moments to talk to her and see if she was okay. But it was just a regular day." 

If you have any information on her whereabouts, please call the Pennsylvania State Police Bethlehem Barracks at 610-861-2026. 

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