Crime & Safety
One Month Later, Sheriff Says Linnea Lomax is Still Alive
The mother of one of Linnea's friends described her as a "high-achieving, bright girl" who was in one of her lowest moments before being checked into a psychiatric hospital during UC Davis finals.
UC Davis student Linnea Lomax has now been missing for an entire month.
Her image is plastered all over storefront windows and message boards throughout Davis and Sacramento. A Facebook page to supplement the search effort has gained almost 6,000 fans. Search parties hit the streets daily.
Still, no Linnea.
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El Dorado County Sheriff John D'Agostini told the press Thursday that he believes the 19-year-old is alive. He made the statement exactly one month after she in Sacramento.
“Somebody out there knows where Linnea is,” D’Agostini said. “We just want to make sure she’s OK.”
Find out what's happening in Daviswith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department handed the search effort over to the El Dorado Sheriff's Office, when it was
She is "by all accounts, [voluntarily] 'missing' and choosing to stay away from friends and family," wrote the Sacramento Sheriff's Department in a release.
Davis Patch spoke with the mother of one of Lomax’s friends from UC Davis several weeks ago.
“She’s a high-achieving, bright girl,” said Sandy Johnson, who lives in Dixon and saw Lomax the night before her parents intervened during finals. “It was one of her lowest moments. Linnea kept saying she was going to be OK. [My daughter] even received phone calls and text messages saying ‘I’m OK, don’t worry about me.’”
The Johnson family knew Lomax well, having sponsored a Bible group that their daughter and Lomax were both a part of.
“She spent time at our home,” Johnson said. “So it’s personal for us.”
A benefit concert has been planned for August 5 at 5:30 p.m. at Cold Springs Community Church in Placerviille. The $10 concert is aimed at helping fund the non-stop search effort that began the moment Lomax went missing.
“It’s a nightmare not to know where your daughter is at,” Lomax’s father told Fox 40.
Sheriff D’Agostini said that Lomax is still considered at-risk, and "needs regular medication."
“She was not doing well,” Johnson said of the night she saw Lomax before the 19-year-old was checked into the facility. “She was not eating, not sleeping.”
Still, Johnson said she finds it hard “to fathom her not texting or calling.”
“She’s amazing,” Johnson said. “It’s hard for us to even conceive.”
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