PITTSBURGH —
The family of a Jefferson County woman missing since the remains of her infant son were found in her burned home four years ago is now offering a $25,000 reward for information on her whereabouts.
State police have yet to determine whether Joey Lynn Offutt, who would now be 37, was abducted or killed, or whether she left of her own accord after the fire that destroyed her home in Sykesville on July 12, 2007.
The remains of a 6-week-old boy found in the fire were later determined to be those of Offutt’s son, though her two daughters – now 12 and 6 years old – weren’t home and continue to live with relatives, said Jason Hungerford, Offutt’s nephew and spokesman for her family.
“We believe it was foul play,” said Hungerford, 34, of Ithaca, N.Y. “Above all else, Joey was a mother. She would never willingly leave her children behind.”
Trooper Jamie LeVier, a spokesman for the state police barracks in Punxsutawney, said the case is still being actively investigated by the same detective who was assigned to it when Offutt disappeared.
The cause of the baby’s death has never been released by investigators, LeVier said Monday.
The case was featured on Fox television’s “America’s Most Wanted” in 2008 but, aside from the highly publicized discovery of Offutt’s car four days after the fire, police have said little about any leads.
“It’s really just the same. No leads, no movements, we’re at a standstill,” Hungerford said Monday.
Offutt’s family – primarily her three older sisters and their divorced parents – have pooled their money and periodically raised the reward offered by the family through the website they maintain: www.findjoey.org.
On Monday, the family raised the reward from $20,000 to $25,000.
Hungerford said the family believes she is dead because her oldest daughter had a birthday a little more than two weeks after she disappeared.
“I know in my heart, if Joey was on the run, she would have called” on her daughter’s birthday, Hungerford said.
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