$20,000 reward offered for location of missing Missouri woman Lindsey Watts, who vanished in May 2026

Tuesday, May 19, 2026, was a rainy day in Edina, Missouri. John Watts, who owns a mowing company, says the rain disrupted his work plans that day. His daughter Lindsey worked as a dietary manager at the Blessing Center in Edina but also helped her dad with his mowing business when she wasn’t working. But because of the weather, Lindsey told him she wouldn’t be able to help that day. “And I said, ‘That’s fine. We’ll go mow tomorrow,’” John told Dateline. So 34-year-old Lindsey Watts spent May 19 working a long shift at the Blessing Center. The next morning, May 20, John texted his daughter to ask when she would be available to help with the mowing. “Asked her what time she was gonna be off ‘cause we needed to go mow that day,” he said. “And she never did text me back, which was not unusual. I thought, ‘Well, she’s probably busy or something.’” Later that day, Lindsey’s teenage daughter called John, asking if he had seen her mom. He hadn’t. So Lindsey’s parents went looking for her. When they checked the family’s Life360 app, it showed Lindsey’s location at her home. But Lindsey wasn’t there. “We searched the house and the basement and the crawl space and a couple of neighbors’ houses there, and, uh, she was nowhere to be found,” John said. Lindsey’s daughter told her grandparents that she last saw her mom between 11 and 11:30 p.m. on the night of May 19. “Her daughter said she was really tired, and [Lindsey] was actually in bed when she went in and told her that she loved her and good night,” John said. “And as far as she knows, she was gonna be sleeping.” The family also learned Lindsey hadn’t shown up for work at the Blessing Center on the 20th. As they tried to figure out where Lindsey could be, her parents began calling their other children, including Lindsey’s younger sister, Lacey Watts. “My mom got ahold of me and was like, ‘Hey, have you talked to your sister today?’” Lacey recalled. “I was like, ‘No,’ but that’s not unusual. Like, we don’t talk every single day. So I didn’t think anything of it until they were like, ‘She’s gone,’ like, ‘She’s missing.’” Lindsey’s absence was very out of character. “She’s one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met,” Lacey said. “I mean, she’d do anything for anybody. Very reliable. Whenever you needed her there, she was there.” John and his wife reported Lindsey missing to the Knox County Sheriff’s Office. According to John, authorities found Lindsey’s phone in a ditch south of her house. The phone was still working, and investigators took it to examine. Lindsey’s other belongings, including her wallet, money, car, and car keys, were all found at the home. John says it did not look like there was any sort of struggle inside the house. The Knox County Sheriff’s Office led the investigation, working with the Missouri Highway Patrol and other nearby agencies, including the Kirksville Police Department and the Lewis County Sheriff’s Department, to search for Lindsey, according to John. “They’ve pretty much done all the footwork,” he said. “They have not found anything yet.” Dateline called Sheriff Carl Knoche at the Knox County Sheriff’s Office for an update on the investigation into Lindsey’s disappearance and has not yet heard back. John told Dateline there’s been no activity on his daughter’s accounts since she vanished in May. NBC affiliate WGEM has been following Lindsey’s case since the first week of her disappearance, covering an early prayer vigil and the beginning of the investigation. Ten days after Lindsey vanished, the station spoke with Edina Mayor Linda Kerr. “I think the community is on edge, they’re wanting answers,” Kerr told WGEM. The Edina Sentinel has also reported extensively on the case. Knox County Sheriff Knoche told the newspaper that investigators had identified “people of interest” in the case but did not identify them by name. “The integrity of the investigation is my priority,” Knoche said. “Information to the public will be released at the appropriate time.” In mid-July, the Edina Sentinel and WGEM reported that investigators had executed multiple search warrants in Lindsey’s case. According to the documents, investigators searched a 2013 Ford F-150 and a black iPhone recovered from the vehicle. They also sought records from multiple cellphone providers and social media accounts. “The records do not accuse anyone of a crime or establish criminal wrongdoing,” the Sentinel wrote. “Instead, they show investigators seeking digital evidence they believed could help determine what happened after Watts was last seen on May 19.” At the 100-day mark of the investigation, Sheriff Knoche did a sit-down interview with the Edina Sentinel about the case. “We got the best team on it that we can,” he said. “The public just needs to be patient and trust in the process.” During the interview, Knoche said he believes foul play was involved in Lindsey’s disappearance. The sheriff said investigators had received hundreds of tips and he encouraged the public to call in with any information about Lindsey’s case. “My focus is on Lindsey Watts and finding her and bringing her home and ultimately bringing the individual or individuals involved in her disappearance to justice in a court of law,” Knoche told the Edina Sentinel. As the months pass without answers, Lindsey’s family is growing increasingly frustrated and fears the worst. “It’s coming to the point where we no longer believe she’s Earth-side,” sister Lacey told Dateline. With deer hunting season approaching, Lindsey’s family hopes hunters searching the wooded areas around Edina might come across something that could help locate her. “There’s a lot of out-of-state deer hunters up here,” John explained. The family is asking hunters to keep an eye out for any sign of Lindsey while they’re in the area. The Watts family is offering a $20,000 reward in Lindsey’s case to anyone who can tell the sheriff’s office “the whereabouts or the location of where she’s at, dead or alive,” John told Dateline. “We want her found.” Lacey echoed her father’s plea. “There’s really nothing left to say besides: Where is she at?” she said. Lindsey is around 5’3” and weighs approximately 125 lbs. She has long brown hair, brown eyes, and a tattoo of three stars on her right shoulder. If you have information about Lindsey’s case, please contact the Knox County Sheriff’s Office at 660-397-2186. If you have a story to share with Dateline, please submit it here.