Family of missing Colorado mom targeted by scammers, police say: "You're not my daughter"
Kaysey Yoder hasn't been seen since she left her Colorado home in January.
The Weld County Sheriff's Office says it doesn't suspect foul play right now, but loved ones of the 34-year-old mother of four say she would never leave her children voluntarily.
While the Sheriff's Office says social media was incredibly helpful in getting the word out about Kaysey's disappearance, it looks like someone used that information to take advantage of her family.
"She kept saying 'you give me the money, I'll be back tomorrow.' He kept saying 'grams, she's coming back tomorrow,'" recalled Tami Ruth, Yoder's mom.
Those were the words Ruth and her 9-year-old grandson Havyn had been waiting for for months.
"He was putting 'mom, I love you, please come home, I miss you so much,'" Ruth said.
Yoder walked out of her Weld County home on Jan. 14 and was never seen again.
"It's been so terrible. I'm falling apart at the seams, I'm not gonna lie to you. It's my daughter, and she and I were close like best friends," Ruth said.
But Sunday, there was a flicker of hope, when Havyn appeared to be messaging his mom on Facebook.
"He said somebody was on the phone and it was Mom, and I go, 'What?' and he said, 'no, Grams, she's texting you,'" Ruth said.
But Ruth soon realized something wasn't right.
"She was calling me 'Ma' and 'Mum,' and Kaysey never calls me that," Ruth said.
She began asking the person questions only her daughter would know the answers to.
"I said, 'What's your mom's nickname?'" Ruth said.
The person said they had been beaten badly by kidnappers and didn't remember anything.
"I said, 'call me' and they didn't answer," Ruth said.
One message read, "I want to come to you, mother. Mom, do you want me to continue to suffer?"
After days of back and forth, the person finally called.
"At 5 in the morning I get woken up to someone saying, 'Mom, help me,' and the next thing I know it's totally muffled. I can't hardly hear them at all," Ruth said.
But when the person messaged and said they were in Russia, Ruth knew it wasn't her daughter.
"I go, 'you're not my daughter. I gotta find my daughter,'" Ruth said.
Ruth reported the incident to police and to the nonprofit Justice Takes Flight, which helps families of missing people.
"The scamming thing, it morphs, so it's ever-evolving, and we struggle to keep up with all the new tactics and techniques," said Linda Meek with Justice Takes Flight.
Meek says it's not the first scheme of this kind she's seen.
"Just about every case we take there's scammers involved in one aspect or another," Meek said.
They say scammers frequently play on families' emotions.
"It's up to missing people's families to be really alert -- very in tune with what these people are presenting to them -- so they're not allowing their emotions to cloud their judgment," Meek said.
"I kept going up, kept going down. Well, maybe it is her because she said 'love you more' back. Maybe it is her, and if I block her then she's gone forever," Ruth said.
The false hope tends to serve as a blow to an already broken heart.
"We're already suffering the way it is and they go and add more to it," Ruth said.
She says her family won't stop searching for their missing mother and daughter.
"Not until I get her back. She's my girl," Ruth said.
Justice Takes Flight says Ruth did the right thing by asking questions and choosing not to send money. They recommend families in this situation be wary of anyone contacting them over the internet and report all messages like this to law enforcement.
The nonprofit says it sees scams like this in about 90% of the cases it takes on. Unfortunately, as artificial intelligence becomes more sophisticated and widespread, these scams will likely only become more believable.
Not only do these scams harm the families of missing people, but they can take valuable time and attention away from credible tips that could lead to finding the missing person.
