Police treating Whitehall Twp. woman's disappearance as criminal case

NORTHAMPTON, Pa. (WPVI) -- Pennsylvania State Police investigators are now treating the disappearance of a 33-year-old mother of three who seems to have simply vanished as a criminal case.

Authorities are working to retrieve surveillance video from across the area to hopefully uncover a clue in the case.

Jessica Padgett, of Whitehall Township, has been missing since Friday. Her family is nothing short of terrified.

Her brother, Jeremy Graff, tells us, "I just want my sister found. And that's all we ask at this time."

On Monday, he met with family and friends to hand out flyers and search the rural areas around this part of the Lehigh Valley.

They first gathered outside the General Dollar store in Northampton Borough where investigators recovered Padgett's white Subaru Outback.

Jessica's sister Kristi Davis says, in her mind, there is no question that her older sister was taken against her will.

"She wouldn't leave her kids or her job. She wouldn't not return back to work. She wouldn't not tell anybody. It's just not who she is," Davis explained.

It was Friday, right around lunchtime, when Padgett left the Duck Duck Goose Daycare in Northampton Borough, where she works, to run some errands.

Coworkers say she was wearing a black hoodie with the daycare's logo. And that was the last anyone has seen of Jessica Padgett.

Her fellow employees say they are holding on to hope that this case has a happy ending.

Daycare Supervisor Marcelle Deppe tells us, "She's a very good person, a very loving person, excellent worker. She was a very close friend of all of ours. We're a very close family here and we just want her back."

Meanwhile, Padgett's sister has a message for the public: "If you know anything, please contact police. We don't know anything at this point and any clue would be helpful at this point. So, if you have her, please let her go. We're her family and we love her, and we miss her. And she needs to be with her kids and her family."

Padgett was recently married, just a few months ago, but police tell us that at this time her husband is not a suspect in this case.

Padgett is described as white female, 5'2" tall, 130 pounds, with brown hair and hazel eyes.

Anyone with information about the case is urged to contact Pennsylvania State Police at 610-861-2026.