Anonymous letter answer to woman's 2009 disappearance?

GLADWYNE, Pa. - January 10, 2013

29-year-old Toni Sharpless left a house in Gladwyne after an all night party back in 2009.

The house is owned by former 76er Willie Green who she and her friends met at a bar.

Sharpless, a nurse from Chester County, left the house around 5:00 a.m. and drove off alone.

She hasn't been seen since.

It's been an agonizing three years for her family.

"You just go through day by day. It's like you're in a big, black hole and there is no way to turn. No bottom to it, no top. It's just never ending," Toni's mother Donna Knebel said.

Toni's family has pinned their hopes on numerous false leads over the years.

Now they're hoping an anonymous letter finally leads to answers.

It was sent to private detective Eileen Law who's been volunteering her time to help with the case.

"When I read the letter, I started shaking," Law said.

The letter writer claims he was paid $5,000 to drive Toni's car from Camden to a chop shop in Boston.

"He said that a friend of his, a cop in Camden, got into a fight with a girl. She died and he needed to get the car out of Jersey," Law said.

Camden police have not returned our calls for comment.

A week after Toni disappeared; a license plate scanner recorded her license plate in Camden.

It's not known if it was still on her car at the time or on another car.

Toni's car has never been found.

Police even searched the Schuylkill River for it.

The letter is now being examined by police forensic experts.

"I'm hoping somebody knows something or somebody is trying to come forward," Knebel said.

They may never know what happened to Toni after she left the Gladwyne house three years ago.

But this is the closest they've been to an answer, even if it does lead to another blind alley.

Copyright © 2024 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.