Joey Lynn Offutt

• Missing Since 07/04/2007
• Missing From Sykesville, Pennsylvania
• Classification Endangered Missing
• Sex Female
• Race White
• Date of Birth 10/11/1973 (50)
• Age 33 years old
• Height and Weight 5'3, 110 pounds
• Associated Vehicle(s) Red 1994 Saturn with the Virginia license plate number JXN8871 and visible damage on the hood (accounted for)
• Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Brown hair, brown eyes. Offutt wears wire-framed eyeglasses. She has a noticeable lisp.

Details of Disappearance

Offutt was last seen at her house in the 90 block of Fugate Drive in Sykesville, Pennsylvania on July 4, 2007. Her vehicle, a red 1994 Saturn with the Virginia license plate number JXN8871 and visible damage on the hood, may have remained at the residence for several days after that before it too disappeared.

At 4:00 a.m. on July 12, a loud explosion at Offutt's house woke her neighbors and they discovered the house was on fire. After the fire department extinguished the blaze, they found the body of an infant in the house's bathtub. The dead baby was subsequently identified through DNA as Offutt's six-week-old son. Investigators couldn't determine the cause of death, but they established that the baby had been dead before the fire started. They discovered the blaze had been set with an unspecified accelerant.

Offutt's disappearance was discovered at the time of the fire; there was no sign that she had been in the home when it started. Her purse and identification were found in the rubble, however. Offutt's two other children, aged two and nine years old, were not at the home at the time of the fire and are now in the care of relatives.

On July 15, Offutt's vehicle was found abandoned along Waupelani Drive in State College, Pennsylvania, at the Nittany Gardens Apartments, where Offutt used to live. This is several hours away from her home in Sykesville. There was no sign of her at the scene, and nobody at the apartment complex remembers seeing her recently. The car was backed into the parking space neatly, and Offutt's loved ones stated she was not a good driver and couldn't have parked it so well.

Authorities believe Offutt met with foul play and is now deceased. She is descibed as a very trusting, naive and religious woman. She attended Shepherd University in West Virginia, but dropped out after a year. Her loved ones stated she had trouble maintaining jobs and relationships, and moved frequently. She has previously lived in Virginia and Texas.

Offutt planned to marry the father of her baby son. She enjoyed meeting people on the Internet prior to her disappearance. She was declared legally dead, at her mother's request, in June 2016.