A $10,000 reward is being offered for any information leading to the whereabouts of Air Force nurse and mom, Nonnie Dotson, of Colorado, who has been missing since November.
Dotson, 33, was stationed at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, and has been missing since Nov. 19. She was last heard from around 11 a.m. that day, according to police. She vanished while she and her then-16-month-old daughter Savannah were visiting her brother, Tony Dotson, in Littleton, Colo.
"We were hoping to have some tips come in when we offered the reward but there's not been anything so we're still clueless on what's happened to her," Dotson's mom, Candice, told FOX News on Wednesday.
Dotson was last seen wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, white t-shirt and black jeans. She left her brother’s house in the 9500 block of W. Unser Ave. in Jefferson County, Colo. It is believed she left to go shopping. Dotson arrived in Denver from San Antonio on Nov. 16 to visit her family. She was due back at work as an intensive care nurse at the base on Nov. 21.
She was scheduled to be released from her military commitment in March of this year.
According to the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office in Colorado, Dotson's cell phone was triangulated to the C470 and Kipling, Colo., area. Police retraced a possible route to a juice shop police believe Dotson was going before her disappearance, and authorities have searched along roadsides in south Jefferson County. A K-9 unit has also been used to try to locate her.
Police say no information so far indicates Dotson's disappearance is the result of foul play or of her own accord. The Air Force is assisting in the search.
The father of Dotson's child is Edward Vehle, 53, of San Antonio. The couple never married.
Vehle met with a detective in Texas in December and was interviewed for about an hour about the case, reported the Rocky Mountain News. Vehle's lawyer has told reporters his client was in Texas at the time of her disappearance.
Dotson became pregnant in the fall of 2004, shortly after she and Vehle started dating, according to the newspaper. Two weeks before their daughter, Savannah Marie, was born, Vehle called police to his suburban San Antonio home to break up a domestic spat when Dotson tried to retrieve her belongings.
A judge issued an order two months ago requiring Vehle to pay Dotson $10,000 in back support and $900 a month until Savannah is 18.
A Texas judge earlier this month granted temporary custody of Savannah to Dotson's parents, reported the Rocky Mountain News. Vehle had asked that temporary custody of the 18-month-old be awarded to him. Click here to read that story.
Since Dotson disappeared, Savannah has been living with her maternal grandparents in Long Beach, Calif., and now will continue to do so.
Although police seem to have ruled out Vehle as a suspect in Dotson's disappearance, the missing woman's mother told FOX News she's not so sure of his innocence.
"I don't know if he's involved, truthfully," said Candice Dotson. "But my daugher had made comments to me and also to people I don't even know that if anything ever happened to her, she wanted Ed to be checked out. So, that is a concern to me and it bothers me he didn't come forward right away to help. Everybody else ... that knows Nonnie came forward to help in any way they could."
Candice Dotson also said she's curious as to why Vehle's family is all of a sudden interested in Savannah.
"For 16 months, they had nothing to do with her," she said, adding that the Vehle family sent back birth announce and other mailings sent to them from the Dontsons were returned. Plus, she said, "Ed fought a good fight not to have to pay child support."
Candice Dotston said she doesn't believe the fight over Savannah is even about money, but about power.
"He made it sound like she [Savannah] was his possession, not what was in the best interest of Savannah," she said. "He would have taken Savannah from us without ever having met her if he could have."
If you have any information regarding Dotson, please contact Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, at 303.271.5612
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