It appears 2017 will draw to a close for the family of Calandra Stallworth with few answers as to what has become of her.
“This holiday is going to be very, very hard to deal with, with her not being here,” said Sheila Knight, Stallworth’s mother. “We’re going to try to make the best of it. That’s all we can do.”
Stallworth, a Crestview resident, was last seen March 29, when she reportedly went to the city’s police department headquarters to notify authorities she was not missing, as her family had reported two days earlier. She told police she had been in Alabama with her boyfriend.
For whatever reason, Stallworth, who from all accounts was extremely close to her family, did not reunite with them after stopping in at the police station.
Family members had last seen Stallworth March 27, according to reports, when she dropped off her two young daughters at her grandmother’s house next door on her way into work at the Hilton Sandestin Beach.
“We talked to one another every day,” said Knight, who lived across the street from Stallworth. “We told each other we loved each other and to be safe. Then that last time she never showed up.”
Stallworth had called on the evening of March 27 to report she was on her way home, but she never arrived.
Another development in the case came four days after police say they had contact with Stallworth. Antwon Montrex Smith, Stallworth’s boyfriend of more than three years, according to Knight, was pulled over driving her car.
Smith was with another woman, 18-year-old Taleah Durm. Stallworth’s purse and cell phone were in her car, Knight said, but she was not.
Smith, who was arrested on the night the car was pulled over for possession of cocaine, driving without a license and a probation violation, told officers he had dropped Stallworth off at another man’s residence.
“We know that ain’t quite the story,” Knight said. “What woman leaves her personal belongings?”
Though Knight said she wishes the Crestview Police Department would have reacted faster to her missing person report, Police Chief Tony Taylor said the case has been and remains a high priority.
“We’re very concerned about this case. We are addressing it as critically and importantly as anything else. Every time we get a lead we’re following it up as well as we can,” he said. “But right now we’re not discovering anything new. It is a missing person’s case.”
Police Department spokesman Brian Hughes confirmed the case remains an active investigation and city police have enlisted the help of the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in the search for a break in the Stallworth case.
Smith, 33, is serving a 15-month prison term at the Florida State Prison in Raiford on several charges. He is scheduled for release in June of 2018.
Knight said she has not communicated with Smith or with Durm, the woman who was with Smith in Stallworth’s car. Efforts to reach Durm through social media were unsuccessful.
Knight said she hopes someone who knows something about Stallworth’s disappearance will come forward with information.
“If anybody knows anything I would ask them to come forward,” she said. “We all need closure here, whether good or bad, we wanna know.
"She’s got two little girls, and they’re missing their momma.”
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: 'WE ALL NEED CLOSURE HERE'