California woman vanishes during cross-county road trip; seen in police bodycam 2 days before last known sighting
A California woman vanished on a road trip with her pet bearded dragon and appeared upset during one of the last times she was seen, according to police bodycam footage of the encounter.
Chelsea Grimm, 32, was reported missing by her parents on Oct. 4 when they were unable to reach her days after she told them she planned to go camping in Arizona and might not have phone service, AZ Family reported.
She was last seen camping in her car on Sept. 30 by a woodcutter in an area near Ashfork, Arizona.
Grimm’s abandoned car was found with flat tires on the side of the road on Oct. 5.
Her belongings and her pet dragon were not inside the locked Ford Focus SUV and her phone and credit card activity has stopped, according to the local outlet.
“We are trying our best to hold onto positive outcome scenarios and put our faith in the authorities,” her father, Stephen Grimm, told the publication.
Just two days before her last known sighting, Grimm interacted with a police officer in Williams, Arizona, who was checking on her after receiving a call about a suspicious vehicle near a graveyard and war memorial.
The Sept. 28 encounter was captured by the cop’s body-worn camera and was recently released in hopes of helping aid the missing person investigation.
Grimm, a photographer and artist, appeared to be upset in the footage and the officer asked her if she was all right.
“Yeah, I just was doing a photo shoot of the lost soldiers and got a little emotional, so I was crying before I got back on the road,” she says from the driver’s seat.
The cop asks Grimm if she has a hotel for the night.
“I don’t, I was actually thinking of just camping for the night, but I wasn’t really sure exactly yet. I didn’t plan to be here until sunset,” she tells him.
“The yellow lights up there, the Loves? It’s the trucker stop. In the gas station area, you can sleep there. Nobody will bother you,” the officer says.
“Oh, perfect. Awesome. Yeah, love that,” Grimm replied.
Grimm’s family has hired a private investigator to help local authorities investigate their daughter’s disappearance.
“It’s a nightmare and it’s one that you never could have imagined yourself in and wouldn’t wish on anybody,” her father told Law&Crime Network on Monday.
“But having said that, we’re hanging in there. We’re holding on to hope. Putting our faith in the law enforcement professionals. We’ve also hired a private investigator, which hopefully will help.”
Coconino County Sheriff’s Office investigators said they do not expect foul play at this point after finding Grimm’s locked car. Her family hopes she received a ride when she got two flat tires.
“The car was locked,” the missing woman’s mother, Janet Grimm, told Law&Crime. “It was neat. So there were no visual signs of a struggle. And it’s possible that she just decided that she was going to proceed with her camping.”
Her parents said Grimm was planning to drive across the country for a wedding in Connecticut after she learned she couldn’t take her bearded dragon on a plane.
However, after only making it to Arizona after a few days of driving, Grimm decided her plan was too ambitious and she would have to skip the wedding.
She instead decided to camp in Arizona and then head back to California, according to her parents.
But over the past few days when Grimm was seen or heard from, she seemed “uneven,” her dad told Law&Crime.
“She was upset with a boy she was dating; she was scared of him,” Stephen Grimm said. “We feel like she was running away from him. And I think overall, that was affecting a lot of her mindset.”
