Search expands for missing woman as flooding eases

• Advocate Florida parishes bureau
• Published: May 6, 2008 - Page: 3B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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HOLDEN — Backwater flooding from heavy weekend rains receded enough Monday to continue the search for a Holden woman last heard from shortly before noon Friday, a Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office spokesman said.

But a search by cadaver dogs Monday turned up nothing as Barbara Blount, 58, remained missing, Deputy Perry Rushing, Sheriff’s Office spokesman, said.

Volunteer firefighters and Blount family members and friends also searched Monday in the area where Blount’s 2006 Toyota Camry was found, but turned up no new evidence, Rushing said.

He expected searching to continue today as backwater from the Tickfaw River and its tributaries continues to fall.

Blount’s abandoned car was found Friday afternoon on a gravel logging road in a wooded, low-lying area less than a mile from her house on La. 1036, deputies have said.

It is completely out of character for Blount, a church-going, devoted mother of two adult children, to have left without calling someone, Rushing said.

Investigators believe Blount was taken from her house against her will, deputies have said.

Rushing said six to seven detectives and patrol officers were on the scene Monday working the case.