Local

Nassau County mother missing after failing to show up to pick up kids on Mother's Day

UPDATE, 5/15/18: Deputies believe they've found Joleen Cumming's SUV in Yulee.

Earlier Tuesday, the ex-boyfriend of a missing Nassau County woman has been arrested.

Gee is considered to be a person of interest in Joleen Cummings' disappearance, Sheriff Bill Leeper said.

Leeper said there are other persons of interest in Cummings' disappearance as well.

Gee is being held on a charge of violation of probation. He was taken into custody in Hilliard.

He is being held in the Nassau County Jail on no bond.

Original story below:

The coworkers of a missing Nassau County woman say she would never just leave her kids without letting anyone know where she was.

Deputies say Joleen Cummings, 34, was last seen leaving her job, Tangles Hair Salon Saturday around 5 p.m. For several hours on Monday night, deputies and detectives were searching near a wooded area just yards away from Cummings home. Deputies say they got a tip, but found no leads.

Investigators say Cummings was supposed to meet her ex-husband on Sunday at a Winn Dixie in Hilliard to pick up her three kids. But she never showed up.

Friends say that Cummings' birthday was Sunday, which is also Mother's Day. She had told clients at the hair salon about her plans to spend Mother's Day with her children.

Her boss, Jim Simmons, said that Cummings has been employed at the salon for several years and loved her kids more than anything.

"We are all very worried, it’s just so out of character for her to disappear," Simmons said. "Her life was those children, and I refuse to believe she just took off."

Cummings, who also uses the last name Jensen, is believed to be driving a beige 2006 Ford Explorer. The Florida license plate number is 035KBQ. Friends say she now has brown hair.

A Nassau County Sheriff's Office report says that deputies were called to Cummings' home on Thursday, May 9. A neighbor complained about noise coming from the home and said she could hear the sound of things breaking in the home.

“I heard more stuff breaking than I heard him,” said neighbor Megan Garcia.

It was so bad, Garcia said she called police.

“Once I heard she was screaming at the kids to get into the room, that’s when my alarm went off,” Garcia said.

An ex-boyfriend was at the home and broke things inside, Cummings told deputies. The ex-boyfriend fled into the woods when deputies were called because he has an active warrant out for his arrest in Nassau County, the report said.

Cummings' two children witnessed the incident, deputies said.

Cummings' mother Ann Johnson said she hadn't seen her daughter in over a week. Her cell phone goes straight to voicemail, deputies said.

Please call the Nassau County Sheriff's Office at 904-548-4003 if you have any information.