The body of a missing Missouri mother of four who mysteriously vanished six months ago has now been identified after being found in a wooded area on Saturday, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
Authorities say that the identity of 33-year-old Emily Strite was confirmed through medical and dental records after her skeleton remains were found in the De Soto area by a Frissell Road property owner. De Soto is about 45 miles southwest of St. Louis.
Her cause of death has yet to be determined and investigators say they are working to piece together how exactly her remains ended up there.
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Strite had not been seen since April 12 when she left a friend’s house on foot and is believed to have left her own free will, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said in a prior press release. She was reported missing eight days later by her mother, Charlyn McClain.
McClain tells NBC her daughter's body was found close to the house where she was staying.
McClain says she last spoke to her daughter that morning over the phone where the 33-year-old said she was planning on visiting three of her younger children who live with their father, Steve Fults, over the Missouri border in Cahokia, Illinois.
"We only talked for about a minute and she said, ‘I’m going to go see my kids.’" McClain told NBC News.
McClain told NBC that whenever her daughter went to see her children, Fults would either pick her up himself or send someone to get her. "That was pretty routine. So my assumption was, ‘Well, she’s at Steve’s now, and she’s staying there,’" McClain told the outlet.
Strite’s sister, Jess Strite, claimed to Fox2Now in June that Emily was "in and out of an abusive relationship for most of her adult life" with Fults and that her sister was not actively in a relationship with him at the time she went missing, but was in contact with him.
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McClain says that on April 19, a week after she spoke to ger daughter, she received an alarming phone call from Fults, who said he hadn’t heard from Emily in a week, sparking panic.
"He has never called me and questioned anything about Emily or to tell me anything about Emily," McClain told NBC. "That’s why I panicked when he called me because he had never done that before."
NBC says it spoke to Fults via text in which he said the last time he saw Emily was at the end of March or beginning of April and said he was unaware she had plans to visit the kids. "I had no knowledge of emily [sic] wanting to see her kids April 12th because she didn’t call me!" he wrote, per NBC.
He told the outlet his relationship with Emily ended in 2022 and that their relationship revolved around their three kids. He described Emily as a "strong courageous woman and a great mom."
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, per NBC, says that there are currently no suspects or persons of interest because there is nothing at this time to indicate foul play or that a crime was committed.
As the investigation continues, Emily’s friends paid homage to the mother of four and say they want answers.
"She literally lit up a room every chance that she got." Amanda Bauman, Strite’s childhood friend, said, per Fox2Now. "We pray now that we get answers and whoever hurt her is brought to justice."
"It shouldn’t have happened. She never deserved to just disappear in thin air," Bauman told NBC.
Bauman’s sister, Christi Bauman, added that Emily always sought to help her friends.
"Even if she was down, she was going to lift you up," Christi Bauman said, per Fox2Now.
