EDWARDS – Standing on a rural Hinds County road where her daughter was last seen six months ago, Deborah Cummins laughs when she can, cries when she must and pleads for information to end her search.

“Somebody here knows something and we want somebody to tell us,” Cummins said. “We would like some answers. We want closure.”

Angela Schultz Shiers Barrentine was last seen by family members on Nov. 24 at her home at 137 Cain Ridge Road in Vicksburg. According to authorities, the 27-year-old mother of one left the house driving a 1997 Ford F-150 pickup.

She was expected at Thanksgiving dinner the next day at her grandparents’ home, but didn’t show up.

Since then, Cummins and other family members have joined police knocking on doors, talking to people and putting up posters. That search has led them to an area near Belknap and Military roads where Barrentine was last seen driving her truck around noon on Thanksgiving Day.

According to police, witnesses said Barrentine had left Edwards around 11, saying she was headed home.

“With this much time, we’re certain that she has met with foul play,” said Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace.

Pace and other authorities said they won’t speculate about what might have happened, but Cummins says her daughter had problems with drugs on and off since she was a teen. She said drugs may have been what led Barrentine to Edwards.

“Even if she did do wrong she’s still my daughter and you don’t stop loving your child just because she did something bad,” Cummins said.

Unlike other cases of missing women that have made national news in recent years, Barrentine had married just three weeks before she disappeared and authorities have publicly cleared her husband.

Barrentine also left behind her 9-year-old daughter, her wallet and her daily epileptic medicines needed to prevent seizures. Authorities say there is no reason to believe she ran away.

“Angela would have called and checked on her daughter or called her sister by now,” Cummins said.

Family members now care for the girl who they ask not be identified for her own protection. Cummins said Barrentine’s daughter cries herself to sleep most nights and still waits for her mother to come home.

“She prays all the time and asks me if she’s done something wrong,” Cummins said.

Pace has led the investigation from Warren County spending hours and days in Edwards, Raymond and Utica searching remote, wooded areas and interviewing witnesses. He says they are still looking for some people “of interest,” but have turned up no physical evidence.

According to Pace, the lack of physical evidence is the oddest and perhaps most difficult part of the investigation.

“It’s very unusual that the pickup truck has not turned up. That’s one of the most puzzling things to us,” Pace said.

Information about Barrentine and her truck have been entered in the National Crime Information Center and it can be accessed by law enforcement across the country. If the vehicle identification number is entered by law enforcement anywhere in the country it will notify local authorities, Pace said.

He also asked that anyone with information about a 1997 Ford pickup matching the one Barrentine was driving or one recently painted contact the Sheriff’s Department.

TO HELP

Authorities ask that anyone with information about Angela Schultz Shiers Barrentine contact the Vicksburg Police Department at 601-636-2511, the Warren County Sheriff’s Department at 601-636-1761, the Hinds County Sheriff’s Department at 601-974-2901 or the Edwards Police Department at 601-852-5461. She was last seen driving a green and purple 1997 Ford F-150 pickup and wearing a red, long-sleeve T-shirt and blue jeans. She is about 5 feet tall and weighs about 85 pounds and has black hair and green eyes. She has tattoos on her left thigh, both ankles and both shoulders.