SCOTT CITY WOMAN MISSING: WILLIE MAE VASQUEZ WAS LAST SEEN IN HER YARD

SCOTT CITY, Mo. -- Susan Steel says she knows her mother inside out, but she doesn't know where her mother is.

"It's not like her," said Steel, talking about the disappearance of 57-year-old Willie Mae Vasquez of Scott City. "If she walks next door to a neighbor, she'll call me to tell me where she is."

The last time Steel, 38, saw Vasquez was the evening of July 24. Vasquez gave her daughter a hug, and Steel went home to Commerce, Mo.

She stopped by again on July 26, and no one was home. She figured Vasquez had gone for a walk.

The next morning Steel returned with fruits and vegetables for her mother. After beating on her door for 15 minutes without an answer, she left the produce on the porch.

About 5 p.m. Steel returned, and the groceries she delivered were untouched. Steel helped her niece get into the locked house through a kitchen window. They found a roast sitting on the stove, her purse under a couch and her cigarettes in a bedroom closet.

"She is a smoking fiend," Steel said, describing her mother's two-pack-a-day habit. "She wouldn't go anywhere without her cigarettes."

Steel told police that her mother was missing on July 27.

With some help from the Scott County Sheriff's Department, police have interviewed neighbors and friends of Vasquez and placed her on MULES, a Missouri law enforcement database, Sgt. Rick Sheren said. But she hasn't been found.

"We've walked the ditches and fields, and I've put flyers in every business and beauty salon I can think of," Sheren said. "It's like she just disappeared off the face of the earth."

Vasquez is 5 feet 5 inches tall, 123 pounds with brown hair and eyes. She was last seen wearing a yellow shirt and green shorts, police said.

A city animal-control officer is the last person who reported having seen Vasquez, Sheren said. He said he saw her in front of her home at 716 E. Maple St. late the morning of July 27.

"She was outside," Sheren said. "He waved, she looked at him and he drove on."

Steel had thought neighbors who noticed Vasquez on July 25 outside her home were the last persons to see her mother.

Steel said she is frustrated with a lack of information from police and the county sheriff's office. On Wednesday she went into a wooded area east of her mother's home and searched by herself for three hours.

On Thursday Steel hired a private investigator to find her mother.

Sheren has not been able to discover a criminal motive for the disappearance, but he said he hasn't ruled anything out.

Vasquez rarely carries more than $5 to $10 cash, doesn't own expensive jewelry, and the only item missing from her home is a television remote control.

No money has been withdrawn from her bank account, since her mother does not have access to her own bank account, Steel said. Money can only be withdrawn on Steel's signature, her daughter said. This is to protect her mother from people who would take advantage of her, Steel said.

Steel has been legal guardian of Vasquez since February, she said. Vasquez, who suffers from bipolar disorder, has not been using her medication for the past two months, Steel said. Her daughter said Vasquez has not experienced any problems during this time.

Bipolar disorder, also referred to as manic depression, is characterized by wide mood swings, the American Psychiatric Association says. It can be treated with medication or psychotherapy, but no cure is known, the association says.

Despite the illness, Vasquez has never fallen out of contact, Steel said. "If this was a normal routine, I wouldn't panic," she said.