Relatives of a New York grandmother of five who disappeared during a visit to Las Vegas say the silence around her case has been shaken by a series of troubling text messages sent from her phone.
Alisa Goods, 63, was last seen on August 8 while in Las Vegas to spend time with her longtime friend, Roger John, her family told 8NewsNow.
According to the outlet, John said Goods left his apartment at about 12.45pm, planning to ride the bus to a nearby CVS, but she never made it back.
Her disappearance was formally reported last Monday. Two days later, her family said they began receiving alarming messages from her cellphone.
The texts, which appeared to come from Goods, allegedly asked her niece, Alana Calloway, to send Bitcoin.
Family members grew even more concerned when the messages claimed Goods was at a gas station — a detail they found suspicious because she had not traveled to Las Vegas with a vehicle.
Kristen Goods, Alisa’s daughter, said she is still “hoping to God for the best,” even as the family confronts the possibility of a heartbreaking outcome nearly ten days after Alisa vanished.
“My heart can’t take what it could be, which is the worst,” Kristen told CBS News on Tuesday.
New York grandmother of five Alisa Goods, 63, went missing on August 8 in Las Vegas and has not been found
A phone belonging to Goods (front) texted her family last Wednesday and began asking for Bitcoin
Goods was visiting Las Vegas for the second time this year, according to her friend Roger John, with whom she was staying
Calloway said she responded to the texts asking why her supposed grandma needed money for at the gas station.
She believes Goods may have been kidnapped, and that the messages sent on her phone suggested ‘a possibility that they have her.’
‘I want to know that she’s okay and that she is alive,’ Calloway told the outlet.
Goods’ friend John had told 8NewsNow that Goods she on her second visit to Las Vegas this year and that he ‘didn’t think much’ when she was not at his home.
‘Sometimes she’d go out and she’d shop,’ he told the outlet. ‘And I kept texting and calling and texting and calling.’
A missing persons poster described Goods as being 5-foot-8 and 160 pounds with short black and gray hair, as well as brown eyes. She was said to walk with a cane.
Calloway said she has been calling Goods’ cellphone repeatedly while waiting to hear back from law enforcement.
‘So I called her again, and someone picked up, but they didn’t say anything,’ she told the outlet. ‘Then they hung up.’
Goods had retired after a career in childcare and was living on the Upper East Side in Manhattan
A missing persons poster for Goods said was 5-foot-8 and 160 pounds, and noted that she used a cane to walk
That changed last Wednesday when Calloway received messages from someone who identified themselves as Goods.
The person then started to ask for Bitcoin and texted, ‘You didn’t send the money.’
‘Are you going to send it or not,’ the person later added, according to the outlet.
When Callaway asked her supposed grandma to video call her, the other person insisted that the phone was ‘bad.’
‘This phone is a small phone and the camera doesn’t work that’s why I want to get my phone fixed and then I can send you a pic,’ the texts said.
‘She should send $50,’ the phone number belonging to Goods responded.
Goods lived on the Upper East Side and was retired after a career in childcare, according to ABC7NY.
Her family members have now traveled to Las Vegas to talk to law enforcement in person.
The Daily Mail has reached out to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department for comment.
