Emily Wade Missing: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

A 38-year-old Texas mother and waitress has been missing since January 5 and her family and police are asking for the public’s help in finding her. Emily Wade disappeared after watching a movie with a Chili’s co-worker in Ennis, police say.

Emily Renee Wade has shoulder-length blond hair, is about 5-foot-6-inches tall and weighs about 140 pounds, police said. She was last seen wearing a peach sweater, blue jeans and sneakers with a peach stripe, according to police.

“Emily was last seen on Saturday by her family around 5 p.m. Emily was driving her 2012 Nissan Altima with Kentucky plates,” the Ennis Police Department said on Facebook. “According to her family, it is not like Emily to disappear or be apart from her mother and her daughter.”

Wade’s mother, Shirley Wade, told WFAA-TV, “I’m scared to death, I’ll be honest with you. I’m scared to death. I just don’t know what’s wrong.” Shirley Wade said her daughter would not run off.

Police added, “If anyone has seen Emily or the Nissan with Kentucky plates we urge you to please contact the Ennis Police Department at 972-875-4462 and ask for Det. Sgt. Rickman.” Ennis is located about 35 miles south of Dallas in Ellis County. “One of the best parts of living in Ennis is the how close we are as a community and how we rally to help one another,” police said.

Here’s what you need to know about Emily Wade:

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1. Wade Went to Watch a Movie & Eat Pizza With a Male Co-Worker & Did Not Return Home, Police & Her Family Say

Emily Wade was last seen in Ennis, Texas, on Saturday, January 5. While police have said the last confirmed sighting of Wade was at 5 p.m., her co-worker told Wade’s family and investigators that he saw Wade driving away from his home about 8:30 p.m. that same night. Wade told her family she was going to the male co-worker’s house on Clay Street in Ennis to eat pizza and watch a movie.

Wade’s mother said she began to get concerned when Emily failed to return home by 10 p.m. Emily was then reported missing the next morning when she missed her 11 a.m. shift at the Chili’s restaurant in Ennis where she works, according to her family. Wade lives at an apartment with her mother and daughter in Ennis, her family told NBC News. She was driving her mother’s car, a silver 2012 Nissan Altima, on the night she vanished.

Police have said that Emily Wade’s cell phone has been turned off and has not been used since before she was last seen Saturday night. According to police, she has also not used her credit cards. Her bank account has also not been touched.

Shirley Wade told NBC, “The pain is too hard. It is crushing me. It’s just ripping my heart out my chest. I just pray constantly, I say, ‘God, just give us a sign. Give us a sign, anything, a clue to where she might be.’ And I pray to God that she’s still alive.”

Wade told WFAA-TV, “No she’s never done anything like this before. That’s what scares me. She would not do this to her mother. I know she would not do it to me. She knows how I worry. She would not do this to me. She would not do this to her daughter. No, nothing like this.”

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2. She Is the Mother of a 7-Year-Old Girl Who She ‘Loves More Than Anything in the World’

Emily Wade is the mother of a 7-year-old daughter. The girl also lives in Ennis, Texas, and Emily shares custody with the girl’s father.

Wade’s family have said that she would never abandon her mother and daughter and has never disappeared like this before. “If she was able to crawl to me and her daughter, she would do it,” Shirley Wade told NBC News. “I don’t think she ran off, I would bet my life on that.”

Jared Jones, Wade’s ex-boyfriend and the father of her daughter, told NBC News he agreed that Wade would never leave her daughter. Jones told the news station, “She loves her daughter more than anything in the world.”

Jones told NBC News his daughter has been asking when her mother will be found. “I can see the pain in my daughter’s eyes. She tries to stay strong, but I know it’s gotta be eating away at her as well.”

Jones added, “We just want her home, and every night, me and my daughter, we pray together that we are going to find her. It gets harder and harder every day to keep the hope.” He has been helping to lead the search efforts for Wade.

“She just wants her mommy home,” Jones told KTVT-TV about his daughter. “She just wants her mommy home, that’s all we want.”

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3. Wade Grew Up in Kentucky & Moved to Ennis Last Month, but Had Lived There Previously

Emily Wade is a Kentucky native, and has spent time living both in her home state and in Ennis, Texas, and the surrounding area. Her ex-boyfriend, Jared Jones, is a native of Ennis, but has also lived in Kentucky. Emily and her mother had both previously lived in Ennis and moved back there last month.

Her mother told Fox 4 News that her daughter had gone to watch a movie with her Chili’s coworker, who is one of the few friends she has made since moving to Ennis.

“Wade had moved to Ennis to help her mom through back surgery, moved back to her hometown in Kentucky and then moved to Ennis again to live in an apartment with her mother and 7-year-old daughter,” the news station reports.

She had recently lived in Harrison County, Kentucky, where she grew up. According to Emily Wade’s Facebook page, she graduated from Harrison County High School in 1999. She lived in Louisville in 2015 and in Ennis in 2016 before returning home.

Wade has worked in the restaruant industry for several years. On Facebook, she wrote in the bio section, “I’m a strong willed individual who loves her family and her country.”

Jared Jones also lives in Ennis and they share custody of their daughter. He told Fox 4 News, “Everything has been just copacetic and beautiful. It’s nothing she would run away from.”

He told WFAA-TV, his daughter “asks me, ‘Daddy are you going to find Mommy?’ I tell her yes, what, when, or how we’re going to do that. Every silver car we see, we break our neck to see if it’s something.”

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4. Police Have Not Ruled Out Foul Play & Have Questioned Her Ex-Boyfriend & the Male Co-Worker She Was With the Night She Vanished

Authorities have said they have not determined if there is any foul play involved in Wade’s disappearance, but it has not been ruled out.

Police told NBC News that Wade’s ex-boyfriend, Jared Jones, has been questioned and cleared as a suspect. The male co-worker whose house Wade went to before her disappearence has also been interviewed by police. While police do not have any suspects or persons of interest and have not determined if there was any wrongdoing by anyone, they have also not ruled anyone out, including the co-worker, NBC News reports.

Police said the co-worker has been cooperating. He has sat down for several interviews and allowed investigators to search his car and home.

Jones told NBC News he has cooperated with the investigation. “They want to know about where I was Saturday night of course. I expected that, and I have no problem cooperating in any way, polygraph, whatever you need. I just want her home,” he told NBC.

Emily’s mother, Shirley Wade, told NBC News she doesn’t believe Jones had anything to do with her daughter’s disappearance. “I don’t think Jared would ever hurt the mother of his child. It would shock me.

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5. Search Teams Have Used Drones & Retraced Her Route Home From Her Co-Worker’s House

Police have used drones and boats during the search for Emily Wade. They have retraced her route home from her co-worker’s house and looked in low-lying areas near creeks and other water that were flooded the night she disappeared.

Jones’ family and friends have also joined in the search. Her ex-boyfriend, Jared Jones, has been driving around Ennis looking for her with her brother, Chad Wade. The family has also started a Facebook page, “Bring Emily Home,” to provide updates on the case and to help organize searches.

A group called Cajun Coast Search & Rescue Team has also joined in the efforts, according to their Facebook page.

Wade’s sister-in-law, Gracie Smith, who has been helping to organize search efforts, wrote on Facebook, “Well I just watched Emily’s segment on Good Morning America, and cried my eyes out. This just seems so unreal. I don’t think you can explain it to anyone, unless you’re going through it. I wouldn’t want this type of pain for anyone. I really hope people show up for the search party today. We all just want her home again. ??”

Gracie added, ” Emily is a sweet and kind person. She is a mother of a seven year old daughter, who desperately wants to see her mother come home. We all love and miss Emily, and we just want her brought back to us!”

Emily’s brother, Chad Wade, wrote on Facebook, “I want to say again thank you to everyone that is helping find her, Emily would be so happy to know that she is loved and like and this many people is taking times out of their lives to help find her, I will never give up searching for you little sister we’re doing everything we know to do and wherever you are emily know there is thousands of people caring and thinking about you Emily we love you we miss you and we are in each other’s hearts.”

Shirley Wade told WFAA-TV it has been hard driving around looking for her daughter. “All I could think about was, you know, are we going to drive up on her? Is she going to be laying in a ditch? Is the car going to be in the water? It’s terrible,” Wade told the news station.

Jones told WFAA, “It’s harder and harder every day, but I have to keep that hope, I have to keep it for my daughter, and I have to keep it for myself and Shirley.”

Anyone with information about the case should call the Ennis Police Department at Ennis Police at 972-875-4462.

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