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TONI SCHORR |
Authorities, family members suspect suicide
KENTON — The mysterious disappearance of a rural Belle Center woman has law enforcement officers puzzled and her family members anxious.
Toni Schorr was last seen wearing a negligee and a trench coat as she walked away from her home on County Road 210 on Wednesday evening, Feb. 24.
A .38 caliber pistol was reported missing from the home.
Sheriff Keith Everhart said this week all indications are Schorr committed suicide, but after two weeks of an intense search, a body has not been located.
“She is out there somewhere. We just haven’t found her yet,” the sheriff said.
On the night she was reported missing, deputies used police dopgs and infrared equipment to search the area around Schorr’s home. They tracked her cell phone and got a reading in a wooded area, Sheriff Everhart said. After three or four hours, the search was suspended because of darkness, but it resumed the following morning with the assistance of area firefighters and tracking dogs. Additional officers came in from the Logan County Sheriff’s Office in hopes Schorr had wandered over the county line.
Videofrom security cameras from Belle Center businesses were searched, but nothing was found. Aircraft flights over the area yielded no results.
The “pings” from the phone went dead as the battery gave out, Sheriff Everhart said.
Search warrants were served at the property to eliminate other possibilities involving Schorr’s disappearance.
This week, the sheriff’s office will use cadaver dogs and conduct another flyover. If those efforts are not successful, the sheriff said, he is unsure where to search for answers.
“I don’t know what tricks I have left in my bag,” he said. “After the (Ohio Department of Natural Resources) brings in the cadaver dogs and we fly over again, I’m in a corner.”
The officers, said Everhart, are working on the assumption that Schorr has killed herself, but not ruling out any possibilities.
“The information we have leans toward suicide,” he said, “but at this point, anything is possible. She could have been picked up by someone and is hiding out.”
But that doesn’t sound like Schorr, her daughter Mariah Schorr said. She was concerned about her mother’s depression. Toni Schorr hated Ohio winters, so the daughter bought an airline ticket for her mother to live with her at her home in Florida.
“She would love it here,” Mariah Schorr said. “I have room for her.”
She said she talked to her mother nearly daily and heard her mental outlook deteriorating. Toni Schorr had lost her job and seldom left the house except to go to the store, said her daughter.
“My mother has a big heart and a beautiful soul,” she said, “and she cooks like a chef. I just want to hug her and love her food again.”
She was talking with their mom on Feb. 24 at about 4:47 p.m. when Toni Schorr suddenly said “I’m done” and the phone continued with static.
“It was weird,” said Mariah. “I wondered what she meant? I asked ‘Are you going to off yourself?’”
There was no response.
The search began shortly after that call.
“She always suffered from depression,” said her sister, Faith, from her home in Columbus.
The problems grew worse in 2006 when their mother died and shortly afterward, their brother, the sister said.
“Her struggle was beyond her,” the sister said. “I tried to help her for years, but I couldn’t do it. She told me she wanted to die. It’s too bad. Toni is a wonderful person. She would give you the clothes off her back. She has the biggest heart of anyone in our family and lots to live for.”
Mariah Schorr said the family is thankful for the persistence of Sheriff Everhart and his search team. She plans to join with them in the coming months if her mother is not found.
“I just want to find my mom and I want answers,” the daughter said. “If they tell me she is deceased, all right, I will deal with it. Alive or dead, I just want to know.”