BELL
By Adam Armour
Itawamba county Times
FULTON – It’s been more than 30 days since Deborah Bell was reported missing, and police have little new information as to where she may be.
Officials with the Fulton Police Department say new information concerning the whereabouts of the missing East Hill Street resident is scarce, despite local police investigating for weeks.
“We are still running down leads, and we have information coming in from people in the community,” said Fulton Police Chief Reggie Johnson. “We’re following all of it, but it’s just dead ends everywhere we go right now.”
The most recent dead end: A search of Bell’s phone records. Police were hoping subpoenaing those records would reveal whom she was calling and where she was calling from. But Johnson said a search of the records came up empty. She’s made no calls since the day she went missing, he said.
“It’s like she’s fallen off the face of the earth,” the police chief said.
Authorities have also subpoenaed Bell’s financial records. They are still awaiting a judge’s approval of that search.
Johnson said Bell’s disappearance is still being treated as a missing person’s case, not a crime.
“We’re still hopeful that she’ll be found,” he said. “Until we get information otherwise, she’s still a missing person.”
Bell was reported missing by her husband on Feb. 8. She allegedly left home for a doctor’s appointment and never returned. A military veteran, Bell frequented several VA medical facilities, including the Memphis VA Medical Center, the Tupelo VA Clinic and the Plantersville Family Clinic. Bell doesn’t drive, police officials say, and would often catch rides with friends or family, or utilize an area transit company, when she needed to travel.
Authorities don’t know which clinic Bell was supposed to visit on the day she went missing, but she never arrived at any of the clinics she frequents.
There’s a fine line between a genuine disappearance and a perfectly legal situation in which a person just wants to leave home and not be found. When there’s no evidence of a crime, missing person investigations grind to a halt easily.
Bell was well-known around Fulton, even outside her neighborhood. She frequently walked the downtown courtsquare, visiting with local business owners and officials.
Although she was reported missing in early February, Johnson said many of those police have interviewed claim she hasn’t been seen since early January.
adam.armour@journalinc.com
Twitter: @admarmr