FORT WORTH -- Angela Renee Yancey's life has always centered on her family, church and work.
So it was strange Tuesday morning when Jamila Yancey awoke to find her 10-year-old sister still asleep in bed and her mother not inside the east Fort Worth apartment they shared.Angela Yancey, 46, got off work at Whataburger at midnight and should have been home."Normally she would be sleeping on the bed with my little sister," said Jamila Yancey, 25. "She always comes straight home. No matter what."Jamila Yancey's concern grew a short time later when her sister left for school and found their mother's belongings -- purse, cellphone, Whataburger hat and name badge -- in a heap just outside their second-floor apartment in the 8900 block of Randol Mill Road."Nothing was missing or anything like that," Jamila Yancey said. "It's like she just set it down."Fort Worth police kept searching Thursday, saying they fear foul play."We're obviously worried," said Sgt. Pedro Criado, a police spokesman. "She broke routine and it's not the norm for her to just vanish like that. That's why we're treating it like we are."Jamila Yancey said her mother and sister moved to Fort Worth from Ohio two years ago. She said her mother had been looking for a job as a medical assistant after finishing her studies at Kaplan College last year and was working at Whataburger on Eastchase Parkway to help the family make ends meet.Though she often walked to and from work, Angela Yancey, who has no car, apparently received a ride home from a co-worker early Tuesday, Jamila Yancey said.Jamila Yancey said an apartment security guard said he saw Angela Yancey arrive at the complex in a car, go to her apartment door, but then get in a different car after a man yelled something at her."Why would she leave her stuff?" Jamila Yancey asked.She said it doesn't appear that her mother even unlocked the door."I think maybe somebody yelled her name and she turned back around," Jamila Yancey said. "I don't think somebody would be able to grab and drag her down the stairs."On Wednesday, police released a surveillance photograph of a man described as an "individual of interest" who may have information about Angela Yancey's whereabouts.Jamila Yancey said Thursday that after she saw the photo on the news Wednesday night, she told police that the man is her 20-year-old brother, Jarron Yancey.She said her brother went to the Whataburger on Monday evening to pick up their mother's debit card so the family could buy food. Jamila Yancey said her brother was also supposed to pick up a money order from her mother to help pay the rent. Angela Yancey, however, told her son that she hadn't gotten the money order and would do so the next morning.Upon receiving that news, Jamila Yancey said, she called her mother, upset."I was yelling at her," she said. "We had rent due Tuesday morning."She now hopes that the conversation wasn't their last."I was really out of my mind because I was just thinking about the living situation," Jamila Yancey said. "If I could turn back the hands of time, I would have never done that."On Thursday morning, Jamila Yancey handed out fliers with her mother's picture around their neighborhood."I want to seriously go out there and look for her, but I just don't know where to start," she said.She described her mother as a loving, caring, sweet and honest person who would never harm anybody."I want someone to at least let us know something -- tell me or tell the police," she said. "We are concerned as her children. We love our mom and we want her to come back home safe and sound."Deanna Boyd, 817-390-7655How to help
Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Angela Renee Yancey is asked to call Detective J. Goodwin at 817-392-4430.
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