Concern is mounting for a Washington, DC, mother who disappeared suddenly, leaving behind her young son as well as personal items family members say she would never abandon.
Antoinette Forbes, 53, was last seen on September 4 at her home, a property valued at about $1.7 million.
Relatives said they last had contact with the single mother early Saturday morning, and there has been no communication from her since.
Her family told CNN that Forbes left her son, her dog Max, two phones, wallet, laptop and car at the home.
‘We’re in absolute shock and horror,’ her sister, Aileen Forbes, told CNN. ‘We have our own very close-knit immediate family, but we have a very large extended family. We’re horrified.’
Forbes, who worked in public relations for pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, had been making plans to travel to Florida with her sisters before she vanished, Fox News reported.
Aileen said alarm bells went off when Forbes failed to respond to a scheduled catch-up that Sunday. Because Aileen was ill, she asked a friend nearby to check on her sister. The friend went to the house and found the front door unlocked.
Relatives insist Forbes would not have willingly left behind her 10-year-old son, whom they describe as the center of her life.
‘[He] is Antoinette’s life,’ Aileen said. ‘Antoinette is a 100 percent solid, reliable, intelligent, competent woman who is a devoted mother.
Antoinette Forbes, 53, disappeared on September 4 after leaving behind her 10-year-old son, along with her car, keys and wallet
‘She would never leave her son. She wouldn’t leave her dog. She wouldn’t leave her sister who needs her.’
Forbes has been classified as a critically missing person, and investigators are treating her home as an active crime scene, according to Fox News.
Her family has not been allowed inside.
‘In some ways, it’s my home too, and I have not been able to step foot in it,’ Aileen told Fox News.
Family members said they have not received any significant updates from police since Forbes went missing, but Aileen said she knows officers have been working ‘around the clock’ looking for her sister.
The family refuses to believe Forbes could be dead, as they lean on their faith to get through the troubling time.
‘I am trying really hard not to even conceive of that because it would mean that my family is destroyed,’ Aileen told CNN.
‘I’m still trying very hard to keep the faith and the strong, harsh belief that I’ve had from the start that my sister is alive.’
She was last heard from early on Saturday. Her family said she would never leave her son and had a happy life
The front door to her home was unlocked and her dog, Max, was inside
The family is now pleading for help in finding Forbes.
‘We need to know what happened,’ Aileen told CNN. ‘Someone had to have seen something, anything, some small thing, seen her. We need the evidence that’s going to enable the police to do their jobs and bring Antoinette home.’
Forbes has been described by police as 5ft 2in, with black hair, brown eyes, and of Asian descent.
Former MPD investigator Jim Trainum, who is not involved in the case, told WJLA there are a few ‘red flags’ in the case he would have zeroed in on, highlighting her disappearance is atypical for someone with a close-knit family and an apparently happy life.
The former detective, who spent 17 years investigating homicides, said police will be looking at Forbes’s normal routine and looking for anything that ‘interrupted’ it.
Our News Outlet has reached out to police and the family for comment.
