JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The search for Margaret Hanley, a 72-year-old Navy veteran, is continuing as authorities and family members track a confusing trail of sightings stretching from North Florida into Georgia.
Margaret Hanley has been missing from her Westside Jacksonville home since February 7. According to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office (JSO), technological tracking like FLOCK cameras and eyewitness accounts show a non-linear path that has her family deeply concerned.
JSO investigators used Flock Safety license plate readers to reconstruct Hanley’s movements. After leaving Jacksonville, she was spotted traveling south into Bradford County. There, she was stopped by authorities around 4 a.m. as she pulled over for running a red light.
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“She was let go with a warning,” said Sergeant Joshua Sterner of the JSO Missing Persons Unit. “The actual last time somebody’s seen her in person was Saturday the 7th at a gas station down in Bradford County.”
The gas station clerk told JSO that Hanley appeared to be in good health and was traveling alone. However, she reportedly asked for directions to get back to Jacksonville. Her vehicle was later detected by a FLOCK camera further north in Hinesville, Georgia. Since that hit, the trail has gone cold.
Hanley’s son, Jomo Thompson, told reporters that this behavior is “very uncharacteristic” for his mother, who rarely ventures far from home. The family now suspects she may be the victim of a scam.
Thompson discovered hundreds of dollars in unexplained withdrawals from her accounts after she was reported missing. Furthermore, JSO confirmed that two checks each for over $10,000 were recently sent to an address in Texas.
“It appears somebody potentially tried to scam her,” Sterner said. “We are still trying to verify all that now, but at this time, no money from those checks has been taken out of her accounts that we can find.”
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While investigators look into the financial leads, the family is focusing on the ground search. One of Hanley’s sons is currently in Hinesville, checking local hospitals and searching other areas looking for his mother.
“The fact that she was asking for directions leads me to believe she might just be lost out there trying to get home,” Thompson said. “Or maybe that scam... they told her she needed to drive somewhere.”
Now, family and police ask if anyone has seen her or her car to contact authorities and say every tip helps.
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