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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

City family anxious to find missing 20-year-old

By: Aldo Santin

Posted: 11/1/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

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Jessica Jones

THE family of a young woman is frantic after she went missing on the weekend and they've been unable to find her.

Monday afternoon, Winnipeg police reported Jessica Naomi Jones, 20, missing. She was last seen Saturday night.

Jennifer Jackson-Jones said her daughter suffers from depression and alcohol addiction and they are worried about her.

"She used to be a gymnast and a diver but now she needs help, she's at risk," Jones said. "If someone finds her, please get the police involved."

Jackson-Jones said the last time a family member had contact with her daughter was late Saturday night. Jones said Jessica had gone to her father's home in Riverbend to check on a family pet and her father, who was working, spoke to her by phone.

"What happened after that, we don't know."

The RCMP found her wrecked car at about 5 a.m. Sunday on the median near the westbound ramp of the Perimeter Highway at McPhillips Street.

Late Monday afternoon -- about two hours after Winnipeg police issued a missing-persons report about her -- a young woman knocked on Jackson-Jones's door in River Heights. She had Jessica's purse, containing her ID, car keys, credit cards and some cash.

The woman told Jackson-Jones that one of her friends picked up Jessica early Sunday morning in St. James, near Cavalier Drive and Portage Avenue, and drove her to a party at a home in the 200 block of Furby Street. But no one at the party knew her and the owners of the home kicked her out because she was too drunk.

Jackson-Jones said she and Jessica's father have scoured the city in hopes of finding her, without success.

"I don't know what to do anymore," Jackson-Jones said. "We've heard nothing from her friends or anyone else. I'm just spent."

Jackson-Jones said her daughter was often drunk and would go out, get picked up by police and spend the night at the Main Street Project. However, she said after the last episode, she took Jessica for an assessment at Health Sciences Centre. She hoped Jessica would be admitted to the psychiatric unit but after four days she was discharged.

For the past month, Jackson-Jones said Jessica has mostly stayed at home. She's been sober and severely depressed.

Jackson-Jones said her daughter needs to get into rehab but the waiting list for community facilities is too long and the family can't afford a private facility. "She's not crazy. She's just a girl who needs help."

Police describe Jessica as aboriginal, 5-6, 130 pounds, with medium-length brown hair and green eyes. She was last seen wearing a black leather jacket, blue jeans and carrying a purple wallet.

aldo.santin@frepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 1, 2012 A3

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