A Jacksonville family is pleading for help as the search continues for their missing 72-year-old mother, a Navy veteran they say may have been the victim of a scam before she disappeared.<\/p>\n
Margaret Hanley was last heard from on Monday. By Wednesday, her family realized something was wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe did 23 years in the Navy,\u201d her son, Jomo Thompson, said. \u201cShe\u2019s been living at home by herself. She\u2019s a pretty independent woman and just a great all-around mom.\u201d<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n Hanley lives on Jacksonville\u2019s Westside and, according to her family, rarely strays far from home. When he and other relatives couldn\u2019t reach her, concern quickly turned into alarm.<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe my mom was getting scammed,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cNo one had heard from her since Monday.\u201d<\/p>\n After filing a missing person\u2019s report, Thompson says he began reviewing his mother\u2019s bank activity. He had access to her account with her permission.<\/p>\n What he found made him even more worried.<\/p>\n \u201cWe went in and just saw some unusual transactions,\u201d he said. \u201cNot only was she sending money to someone, but just in the last week that she\u2019s been missing, these transactions are being taken out.\u201d<\/p>\n Thompson says some of the money appeared to be loaded onto a mobile payment app in $200 increments. He also says family members found a check at Hanley\u2019s home written to a man for $12,000.<\/p>\n Friends of the family who work in law enforcement and real estate helped look into the name on the checks. Thompson says the man has a history of petty larceny and fraud.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s just not like my mom,\u201d he said. \u201cShe always said no one\u2019s ever going to scam me.\u201d<\/p>\n The family says they do not know whether Hanley left home to meet someone connected to the suspected scam, or whether something else happened entirely.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: <\/b>Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/b><\/a>]<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t even care about the money,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cWe just want to get our mom back home safe and sound.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Thompson, Hanley\u2019s 2001 silver Toyota RAV4 has been pinged in multiple locations since she disappeared, including Gainesville and Starke, Florida, and most recently in Hinesville, Georgia.<\/p>\n Her son says that kind of travel is completely out of character.<\/p>\n \u201cThe only place she really drives is to Walmart to get groceries, which is five minutes from her home,\u201d he said. \u201cShe likes to be at home. She likes to watch her soaps, \u2018Days of Our Lives,\u2019 \u2018The Price Is Right.\u2019 She has a set routine.\u201d<\/p>\n Thompson says his mother does experience short-term memory issues and is not strong with directions, raising fears she could be disoriented.<\/p>\n \u201cShe may be in distress,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Detectives have told the family the case does not meet Florida\u2019s criteria for a Silver Alert. They also indicated that if Hanley is believed to be outside of Florida, the alert would not apply.<\/p>\n Outside Hanley\u2019s home, neighbors describe more than just a friendly face on the block.<\/p>\n Oma Rampersad says she and Hanley became instant friends more than 20 years ago, bonding over their Caribbean roots.<\/p>\n Rampersad says she was one of the first to realize something was wrong. When Hanley didn\u2019t answer her phone or the door, something she says had never happened before, she used a spare key to check inside.<\/p>\n \u201cShe wasn\u2019t there,\u201d Rampersad said.<\/p>\n Now, friends and family are holding onto hope.<\/p>\n \u201cWherever she is, I would really like for her to come home,\u201d Rampersad said. \u201cWe all love and miss her.\u201d<\/p>\n Hanley drives a silver 2001 Toyota RAV4 with a Florida license plate ESMF23. Anyone who sees her or the vehicle is asked to contact law enforcement immediately.<\/p>\n Her family says they are trying to stay positive and leaning on the public for help.<\/p>\n \u201cI just want to try and stay positive,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cAnd hope that we get her back safely.\u201d<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: <\/b>Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/b><\/a>] <\/b><\/p>\n Click here<\/b><\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Jacksonville family is pleading for help as the search continues for their missing 72-year-old mother, a Navy…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":359282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,3188,723,7310,257190,257189,8603,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-595948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-america","tag-fl","tag-florida","tag-jacksonville","tag-jomo-thompson","tag-margaret-hanley","tag-thompson","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116085091010819781","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}