"(Police) didn't even start doing anything until the middle of that week. By then I had already been to the Airbnb. I had already been to the Exxon (to conduct) my own investigation," Sara Carmichael said. "Now they're taking it serious, but those first few days are critical."
Sara Carmichael said that the family last saw Marissa was on Saturday, Jan. 13. They were with her all day, but since Jan. 14, her daughter -- an avid social media user -- has not been active on her accounts and her phone has been turned off.
According to Sara, on the night before her disappearance, Marissa told her sister Emma that she was going to the club. She reportedly asked Emma not to tell their mother because she didn't want her to worry.
Sara Carmichael said after talking to her daughter's friends, she learned that Marissa went to One17 SofaBar & Lounge, and then later went to an Airbnb for an after party, after which she was dropped off at the Exxon station.
"When I woke up around lunchtime, Sunday (Jan. 14), and she wasn't home, and then I found out she didn't go to work, and that's just not like her at all," she said when asked what prompted her to report her daughter missing. "She's always in touch with me. So, I had a feeling."
The family of Marissa Carmichael are devastated as they mark one month since her disappearance from a North Carolina gas station.
abc11.com