Overview of Alyssa McLemore
Alyssa McLemore made a worrisome call to 911 and then disappeared
On the evening of April 9, 2009, Alyssa McLemore spoke briefly on the phone with her grandmother at around 6:30 pm. Her grandmother informed Alyssa that her sick mother's condition was worsening. Alyssa's mother had been diagnosed previously with scleroderma, a very serious autoimmune disease. Alyssa informed her grandmother that she would return to their shared home as soon as possible before the call was ended.
The Day Alyssa Went Missing
A witness later reported seeing Alyssa near 30th Avenue South and Kent Des Moines road in Kent, Washington, the night of her disappearance. According to the witness, Alyssa was getting into a 1990s model green pickup truck that might have had an Oregon license plate. Prior to her disappearance, a different witness had seen Alyssa with a Caucasian man in his 50s or 60s who was driving a green pickup truck. The area that Alyssa was last seen in is well known by law enforcement for sex workers and drug activity.
Three hours after the phone call with her grandmother, a phone call was made to 911 from Alyssa's phone. According to the 911 dispatcher, the call only lasted about 10 seconds, and she had heard a woman screaming and asking for help before the call dropped. The dispatcher was unable to track the location of the call because Alyssa's phone did not have a GPS sensor.
The Search for Alyssa
Law enforcement did not learn about this call until the next day and visited the home that Alyssa had shared with her grandmother to see if she had made it home safely. When they realized that she hadn't come home, they informed the family that they needed to wait to report her as missing because she was an adult, and could leave if she wanted to. Alyssa was finally reported missing four days later, and the investigation into her disappearance was officially opened.
Where The Case Stands Today
Tragically, three days after Alyssa's disappearance, her mother passed away, and Alyssa's family was unable to contact her to inform her of her mother's passing.
More than ten years later, her family continues to hold out hope that she'll be found; a sad reality for the families of thousands of missing indigenous women in the US. The Kent Police Department is asking the public for any information in Alyssa's disappearance, they can be contacted at (253) 856-5808.
In 2024, they released an updated sketch of what they say Alyssa would look like today.
