FL FL - Laura Willsey, 56, Endangered, w/o phone & meds, seen near home 5200 block Garden Ave, West Palm Beach, 30 Jul 2024

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NamUs:


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After West Palm Beach police served a search warrant on Willsey’s home Monday afternoon, detectives and a K9 were seen going in and out of the house, though they did not comment on what they found.

“Somebody out there knows something. We know that,” said Mike Jachles, public information officer for the West Palm Beach police. “Somebody knows something. Somebody has information.”

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Police said Zapata went to her mother's house two days later, on July 30, after her mother didn't answer her calls. Inside her mother's home, Zapata found Willsey's cellphone and medication, items her daughter said she would not leave home without.

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Zapata said she knew something was off when her mother didn't answer her phone call — instead, a man picked up the phone.

"When she wasn't answering her phone and another man was answering her phone, and he said 'She wasn't there,'" said Zapata.

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Willsey' sister, Brenda Ainsburg, adds surveillance footage shows Willsey entering the home but not exiting — and calls this extremely strange.

Zapata said Willsey has three children and works at Lucite Clear Reflections, Inc. Zapata worries for her mother’s safety.

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Police, family seek clues after West Palm Beach woman disappears.​

  • The medication Laura is without is for her heart.
  • Her sister says Laura works, literally 7 days a week.
  • The last thing Laura said to her daughter was that she was locking her door and going to bed.
 
a man answered her phone - creepy
the daughter found her phone in her house? two days after the search warrant?
so the cops left the phone there?
and she was seen going in but not exiting her house?

The daughter found the phone at her house on July 30.

The search warrant was Monday, August 5.

It is really perplexing that she was seen on camera going into her house, but not leaving it. I wonder if anyone else was seen entering or leaving her house and police are withholding that information.
 
Possession - 2012:

Thanks - Here is the official county court information for that 2012 felony arrest. (Case No. 50-2023-CF-012697-AXXX-MB) Charges in addition to the cocaine charge also include charges under 893.135(1C1) DRUGS-TRAFFIC 4 GRAMS LESS 30 KG OTHER CNTRL SUBST. This case is closed. The records also show DUI in 2017 (the criminal traffic charge), various traffic infractions and charges she filed against a man in 2011(case no.50-2011-DR-005332-XXXX-NB) and 2012 (case no.50-2012-DR-010294-XXXX-NB ) for repeat violence (domestic). There was insufficient evidence found for the state to file criminal charges based on the allegations contained in the affidavit for the 2012 complaint however there were criminal charges for violation of a prior injunction filed in the 2011 domestic violence case (though a petition she made in 2013 to modify the injunction was denied). The respondent in both violence cases was the same person.

Nothing in Palm Beach county since 2013. I did not check adjacent counties.

Palm Beach County Court Records Link, view as "guest" no charge. (search by participant name) eCaseView

 

On Saturday night, the community gathered at the location where a West Palm Beach woman was last seen to pray for her and call on anyone who knows something about her disappearance to come forward.

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"We’re not confident that she’s going to be found alive because too much time has gone by, so we are trying to brace ourselves for whatever comes next,” said Brenda Willsey, Laura Willsey's sister.

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"If anyone knows anything, speak and come forward. I know people know something, and they’re not talking, and I just wish we would get some justice for my mom," said Nichol Zapata, Laura Willsey's daughter.

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SEP 3, 2024
Her family said she moved from Woonsocket 20 years ago with her three children, but always kept Rhode Island in her heart.

"She comes home all the time, she was just here in June," said Lisa.

Police have surveillance footage showing Laura enter her home around 2 a.m., but never leaving.

"That's where we think the homicide piece was coming into play, and there was some foul play," said Lisa.

 
Noting:
  • LE found "blood spatter and droplets inside and outside of the home."
  • July 29 security footage captured an argument between Willsey, 56-year-old Todd Arthur Reichert and 64-year-old Timothy Wyman Smith.
  • A witness said Reichert was assaulting Willsey in the room she was renting, and they later heard plastic bags being crumpled in her room and the living room.
  • The witness said Reichert then drove to Belle Glade in his 2010 Volkswagen, and didn't take his phone to avoid being tracked.
  • A search warrant on the vehicle found blood that was confirmed as Willsey's.
  • Willsey's family confirmed that Laura was a confidential informant for the West Palm Beach PD.
  • Reichert is facing a first-degree murder charge and is at the Palm Beach County jail.
 
March 4, 2025 article


[…]

The arrest report concluded that 213 days after Laura Willsey was reported missing, her disappearance was ruled a murder.

[…]

From the linked article:

In a shocking turn of events, an arrest report obtained by CBS12 News revealed Laura was working as an informant for the North Palm Beach Police Department in connection to a business burglary, and one of the suspects in the case was Todd Reichert.

In the report, a detective with the North Palm Beach Police Department was concerned that Laura could have been targeted for her work in the case.
 
Security camera footage from the residence on July 29 evening showed "an extremely volatile argument," with Reichert at the scene, investigators alleged in the affidavit. At one point, he is seen dragging Willsey as she resists, the affidavit claims.

Later in the investigation, police allegedly found Willsey's blood in a car Reichert had been driving. A witness present in the home the night of the argument told police they believed Reichert had gotten rid of her body, the affidavit says.
She Was a Secret Informant Against Her Roommate — and Then She Vanished Without a Trace
 
MAR 17, 2025
...the most significant clue regarding their whereabouts has come from a witness who told investigators Reichert said he drove to Belle Glade after attacking Laura.

Police records indicate that Laura was renting a room in a home owned by Reichert's girlfriend and was in a relationship with another man who resided in the home. Reichert and two other men were implicated in a burglary that occurred last June in North Palm Beach, with Laura acting as a confidential informant in the investigation, according to West Palm Beach police.
 

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