Search continues in Knoxville for missing Ala. woman

Search continues in Knoxville for missing Ala. woman

By WHITNEY HOLMES
6 News Anchor/Reporter

KNOXVILLE (WATE) -- Officers continued their search Monday for a missing Alabama woman who disappeared in Knoxville at the end of last week.

Investigators believe Jennifer Lee Hampton, 21, of Florence, Alabama, may be the victim of foul play.

Nearly four dozen officers searched the Turkey Creek area across from the Days Inn where Hampton was last seen around 9:00 p.m. on September 19. 

A search of a marsh and creek in the area came up empty Monday. Police believe that area is the most likely place someone would dispose of evidence.

Hampton worked for a restaurant chain called Mama Blues. She was in Knoxville on a four day business trip to help with employee training and the opening of the new location at 9647 Kingston Pike.

"Please, please let her come home. Please," says her mother, Cynthia Senn. She says she and Jennifer talked several times a day.

"She talked about coming home, going to the fair, missing home," Senn says.

She left Mama Blue's around 8:30 Friday night and headed to the Days Inn where she was last seen.

"They decided they wanted to go to McDonald's to go get something to eat. They got back around 9:00 or 9:15 and he walked her to her room and made she got in and closed the door," says Mama Blues owner Steve Barnhill, of the events before Jennifer's disappearance.

Hampton went to McDonald's with a co-worker. She was in a different room than her co-workers.

The Days Inn was busy with football fans, but friends and the police don't believe she would've willingly left her room.

"She doesn't smoke, drink, go to bars. That's just not the type of person she is," Barnhill says.

"Right now, it's a process of elimination," says police spokesman Darrell DeBusk. "We are trying to go through every area to make sure there is nothing there. That gives our investigators time, too, to develop other information, other leads."

Hampton is 5'3" and 110 lbs. with a  thin build. She has brown hair and brown eyes.

Mama Blues Restaurant is offering a $5,000 reward for any information that leads to Hampton's  recovery.

Anyone who may have seen Hampton or any unusual activity around the Lovell Road area either late Friday night or Saturday is asked to call investigators at (865)-215-7014.