Police search for missing woman, 24-year-old woman Ivy Dawn Merck, missing since Thursday, Aug. 23/LE finds Merck's car 350 miles away/Ivy Merck found alive in FL

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Published: Friday, August 31, 2012 10:13 AM EDT
Kim Olson-Upshaw
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The Camden County Sheriff's Office is investigating the case of a 24-year-old woman missing since Thursday, Aug. 23. Ivy Dawn Merck has been listed with the National Crime Information Center, Georgia Crime Information Center and Florida Crime Information Center as a missing/endangered person, according to CCSO spokesman Deputy William Terrell.

Merck, a Camden native and University of Georgia graduate, was listed as missing after her father, Steven Merck, told police in Athens that his daughter never arrived home in Kingsland last Thursday.

Merck's vehicle, a dark green 2008 Honda CRV, was found in the town of Deerfield Beach, Fla. after being entered into law enforcement's statewide computer system earlier this week, Terrell said.

According to the missing persons report filed with the Athens-Clarke County Police Department, Merck told her roommate and supervisor at the Good Hands Vet Clinic, where she worked as a vet tech, on Tuesday, Aug. 21, that she was leaving Athens to drive home to Kingsland.

On Aug. 23, the Good Hands clinic received a text from Merck and a request for copies of her dog's medical records from the clinic where Merck boarded the dog until Thursday, Aug. 30.

Capt. Clarence Holman, director of the ACPD criminal investigations division, said Merck's cell phone has since pinged off a tower in Boca Raton, Fla. Camden County Sheriff's Office detectives will continue to investigate the case.

Merck is listed as 5 feet, 1 inch tall and 115 pounds with brown eyes and dark blonde to brown hair. Those with information about her whereabouts are asked to call the sheriff's office at (912) 510-5100.

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Authorities find missing woman's car

Posted: Aug 31, 2012 10:01 AM CDT
Updated: Aug 31, 2012 10:05 AM CDT
By Alex Bender - email

CAMDEN CO., GA (WTOC) -
Ivy Dawn Merck, 24, a Camden County native but recently of Athens, Ga., has been missing since Aug. 23.

Authorities located Merck's car in Deerfield Beach, Fla. in Broward County on Aug. 30.

The Camden County Sheriff's Office, the Broward County Sheriff's Office, the Kingsland Police Department and the Athens-Clarke County Police Department are working together to find Merck.

Merck is a white female, 5'1" 115 lbs with brown eyes and dark blonde to brown hair.

Contact the Camden County Sheriff's Office at 912.729.1442 or Sgt. Brad Collinsworth of Athens-Clarke County Police Department at 706.613.3337 with any information.

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By Annette Smith
updated 7:06 PM EDT, Thu September 06, 2012

Two weeks ago, 24-year-old Ivy Merck made the 350-mile drive from where she lives in Athens, Georgia to Kingsland, Georgia. She was there supposedly to visit her family. Merck dropped her dog Huxley off at the veterinarian in Kingsland on August 23rd and said she would be back in a week. But no one saw Ivy again. Her father reported her missing five days later.

Ivy’s car was found in the parking lot of a strip mall in Deerfield Beach, Florida a week after she was last seen. Police say some of her belongings were inside. They are investigating several unconfirmed sightings of Ivy but so far none of these have turned up any solid new information.

Jane Velez-Mitchell had an exclusive interview with Ivy’s parents. If you have any information that could help find Ivy Merck please contact the Camden County Sheriff at 912-510-5115.

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Did Ivy Merck Leave Suicide Notes Before Vanishing?
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September 07, 2012 02:50 AM EDT

Was Ivy Merck suffering from emotional issues before she disappeared? The latest update in the missing woman's case comes in the form of notes found in her seemingly abandoned car. The University of Georgia graduate left behind notes to her parents and roommate, detailing personal problems in her life that she "needed to work out."

Officials say the notes didn't appear to be suicidal, but they are not clarifying on what they could entail. In fact the spokesman for the Camden County Sheriff's Office didn't seem 100% sure either:

"The notes she left in her car are a bit vague and open to interpretation, but there was no direct implication that she intended to hurt herself," he said.

Terrell says they also can't rule out the possibility of foul play in the disappearance of Ivy Merck, so it seems that officials just don't know what to think in this case. They say that some of her belongings were left behind in her car, but her cellphone is missing. However, there have been no mentions on whether or not her phone has recently pinged. Could this young woman have been suicidal, or did she happen upon someone who turned her into a victim?

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Missing UGA graduate left notes for her parents and roommate

Posted: Friday, September 7, 2012 9:15 am | Updated: 11:36 am, Fri Sep 7, 2012.
by ADINA SOLOMON

A University graduate who has been missing since Aug. 23 left notes in her car for her parents and roommate saying she needed to work out personal problems, the Camden County Sheriff's Office told the Athens Banner-Herald.

The car of Ivy Dawn Merck, 24, was found in Broward County in Florida. Merck, who lives in Athens, had told people that she was visiting her parents in Kingsland, but she never arrived.

The Red & Black could not reach The Camden County Sheriff’s Office for comment as of press time.

Merck's notes did not appear to be suicidal, Deputy William Terrell, spokesman for the Camden County Sheriff’s Office, told the Athens Banner-Herald.

“The notes she left in her car are a bit vague and open to interpretation, but there was no direct implication that she intended to hurt herself,” Terrell said.

But he said authorities are still looking for Merck, saying they can't rule out the possibility of foul play.

Police in Athens-Clarke, Camden and Broward counties and the Kingsland Police Department are helping to find Merck.

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This case kind of reminds me of Linnea Lomax.

Missing Georgia woman found safe in Miami Beach

BY HANNAH SAMPSON
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A Georgia woman whose disappearance in August made national news has been found safe in Miami-Dade, authorities said.

Details about exactly where and how Ivy Dawn Merck was found were not known Sunday. Her family and friends had created a “Find Ivy Dawn Merck” Facebook page.

The Broward Sheriff’s Office, which had been helping in the search since the woman’s vehicle was found in a Deerfield Beach parking lot on Aug. 30, sent an email to media Saturday night confirming that Merck had been located safe in Miami Beach.

Merck, who turned 25 on Friday, had been missing since Aug. 23. She had last been seen in Kingsland, Ga.; the Camden County Sheriff’s Office has been providing updates on her case on its Facebook page.

On Sept. 11, the agency wrote that two notes had been found in Merck’s car mentioning that there were issues that made her want to get away. Thursday, the sheriff’s office said investigators feared Merck might have intended to hurt herself.

“Everyone involved hopes Ivy can be brought home safely but the likelihood of that happening greatly diminishes every day,” the agency wrote.

Investigators also asked friends, family and anyone else who was concerned to write birthday messages to Merck on Facebook.

The agency’s most recent update came Saturday, saying that Merck had been found alive in Miami and her parents were with her.

On the “Find Ivy Dawn Merck” Facebook page, Merck’s brother Chad said Saturday that details would follow.

“She is safe and this page was instrumental to the story,” he wrote. “Thanks for your support!!!”

By Sunday afternoon, 1,279 people had liked the post and more than 150 had commented.

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Missing UGA grad found alive and well
By JOE JOHNSON

A 25-year-old Athens woman who had been missing for nearly a month was found alive and well in Florida, authorities reported late Saturday afternoon.
Ivy Dawn Merck turned up in Miami, where she has been reunited with her parents, according to message that was posted about 6:30 p.m. on the Facebook page of the Camden County Sheriff’s Office in southeast Georgia.
The agency had been searching for Merck since Aug. 23, after the University of Georgia graduate drove from her home in Athens to her hometown of Kingsland in Camden County, but never showed up at her parents’ home.
Authorities had feared the worst, and on Friday even said there was a high probability she had intentionally disappeared with plans to harm herself.
Friday was Merck’s 25th birthday, and family members set up a special Facebook page that day for people concerned about the woman’s well-being to post birthday greetings with hopes she would read them and let her family know she was alright.
Details of how she was found were not immediately available Saturday evening.
The Camden County Sheriff’s Office announced that Merck had been found in a brief statement on the agency’s Facebook page:
“Ivy Dawn Merck was found alive today in Miami. Her parents are with her at this time. More details will be forthcoming but she is alive. Thank you all for your help, support and prayers through this very trying time.”
Merck lives with a roommate on Inglewood Avenue off Oak Street in eastern Athens and is a technician at Good Hands Veterinary Hospital in Oconee County.
On Aug. 21, she told her roommate and supervisor that she was leaving to visit her parents, but Steven Merck said he knew nothing of plans by his daughter to drive from Athens to Kingsland.
She boarded her dog in Kingsland on Aug. 23. One week later, a sheriff’s deputy in Florida’s Broward County found Merck’s car in the parking lot of a shopping center in Deerfield Beach, some 350 miles from her parents’ home.
The car had virtually run out of gas and the tires were so bald it had to be towed from the parking lot, authorities said.
Merck left notes for her parents and roommate in the car that described personal problems she needed to work out, but did not mention anything about harming herself, according to Deputy William Terrell, spokesman for the Camden County Sheriff’s Office.
Investigators turned over those notes, Merck’s diary and other evidence to a group of criminal profilers on Thursday, and the consensus was that she had likely intentionally disappeared with plans to harm herself, Terrell said.
But investigators never lost hope, and one theory they pinned slim hopes on was that Merck might have dropped off the radar because she was embarrassed about publicity her disappearance created, only compounding the personal issues she was struggling with.
That’s why authorities and family members appealed to everyone who was concerned to post birthday wishes on the newly created Facebook page, “Find Ivy Dawn Merck.”
“We created this page to give people a place to express their concern for Ivy and show her how much she is loved and valued by family, friends and the community,” said the missing woman’s sister-in-law, Stephanie Baker Merck.
“We made this page with her birthday in mind, but we would have done it regardless,” she said.
On an Internet site where many concerned friends and even strangers posted birthday messages on Friday, a day later dozens more already were expressing emotions of joy and relief.
“An answered prayer!!!” one person commented.
“I am so glad that she was found alive,” another wrote. “Thank you God for keeping her safe.”

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We found Ivy in Miami. Details to follow... She is safe and this page was instrumental to the story. Thanks for your support!!! -Chad Merck.
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:cheering: Thanks for this!!

After several harrowing weeks out on her own while authorities considered her an endangered missing person, 25-year-old Ivy Dawn Merck recently returned home with her parents.
Steven Merck on Monday described how he and his wife, Sally, found their daughter while passing out missing person fliers in Florida as they searched for the University of Georgia graduate who intentionally disappeared from her Athens home.
“It’s unbelievable,” Steven Merck said via telephone from his home in Camden County. “We were riding down the road in Miami when we saw about five or six police officers on bikes, and Sally said we should stop and give them some fliers.
“They told us to go to the police station and leave fliers there, and when we got to the Miami police station, Ivy was just there, sitting on the steps,” Steven Merck said.
“We just kind of stared at her, and she was in a state of shock. Then we all started running to her, and we all must’ve hugged for 10 minutes before we started talking.”
When she went missing, Merck was struggling with personal problems. Authorities who investigated her disappearance concluded from notes she left and other evidence that the woman might be suicidal.
Authorities spoke with Merck’s family members on Thursday and prepared them for a possible tragic outcome.
That same day, Merck’s sister-in-law got an idea from Websleuths.com, an Internet virtual community that follows and comments about missing persons cases and unsolved crimes. She and her husband, Chad Merck, both had registered with Websleuths.com to spread the word about the missing woman.
Someone posted on the website that the family should create a Facebook page devoted to the search. Stephanie Baker-Merck responded, “Excellent idea. I’m going to start working on this right now.”
The page was up and running that night. Because Merck’s birthday was the following day, authorities and family members urged people to post birthday greetings with the hope Merck might read them and realize how many people cared for her and were concerned.
“We created this page to give people a place to express their concern for Ivy and show her how much she is loved and valued by family, friends and the community,” Baker-Merck said. “We made this page with her birthday in mind, but we would have done it regardless.”
Ivy Merck actually saw the special Facebook page and read Websleuth.com discussions about her, which got her thinking about contacting her family.
In a Websleuths.com post Sunday afternoon, Chad Merck explained the rest:
“(Ivy) had gone to the (University) of Miami library the day before, because it was a safe place to go during the day,” Chad Merck posted. “She used a computer and had seen the ‘Find Ivy Dawn Merck’ Facebook page and the Websleuth blog posts.
“She realized that she needed to come home at that point. She said she set out (for) the police station this morning, but went the wrong way and got lost. She passed several pay phones, but could not bring herself to make a call.”
That was at about the same time Ivy Merck’s parents ran into the bicycle officers in Miami.
“(Ivy) had arrived at the station 10 minutes prior and was trying to bring herself to head inside. You can imagine her shock at seeing my parents in the flesh,” Chad Merck said in his Internet posting.
“I am not a statistician, but the odds of us arriving at the same location in Miami at the same time must be incredible,” he wrote. “There is no other way to explain such an amazing coincidence, other than as an answered prayer.”
The family initially searched in the Deerfield Beach area, because that’s where authorities found the missing woman’s car. Chad Merck explained on Websleuths.com that the family decided to expand the search to Miami because a “generic” address in Miami was the last location his sister had entered into her car’s GPS.
The Merck family’s ordeal started shortly after Aug. 21, when she told her roommate and supervisor at Good Hands Veterinary Hospital in Oconee County that she was leaving to visit her parents.
She boarded her dog in the Camden County community of Kingsland on Aug. 23, but never arrived at her parents’ house. That’s when Steven Merck filed a missing persons report with Athens-Clarke police.
Authorities listed Merck as a missing person in state and national law enforcement databases, and on Aug. 30, a sheriff’s deputy in Florida’s Broward County found Merck’s car in a parking lot in Deerfield Beach, just south of Boca Raton and about 350 miles from Kingsland.
The car had just about run out of gas, authorities said, and the tires were so bald the car couldn’t be driven and had to be towed.
According to Chad Merck’s Websleuths.com postings, his sister appeared to have lived in the car because blankets were inside.
After learning his sister had entered a Miami location in her car’s GPS, Chad Merck decided the city’s South Beach would be a good place to continue the search, he said in his online post.
“I had visited Miami a few times and figured that you find your way to South Beach at some point,” he said. “If Ivy did come to Miami, then it was worth a shot.”
There was no parking available, so he dropped off his parents on South Beach’s main drag, and they later went to the beach and left fliers at lifeguard stations before their son picked them up, Chad Merck said in his post.
The family felt frustrated and was about to drive back to Deerfield beach when Sally Merck spotted the officers on bicycle patrol.
“We headed over there, and I dropped my parents off,” Chad Merck said. “I called my wife and was lamenting how futile our search had been that day. We had no leads at all. My mom then called me, so I switched over, and she said the words, ‘We found Ivy. Come now.’
“I then ran towards the police station, and there were my parents hugging and sobbing over a very stunned Ivy,” he said. “She looked the same, except she had cut her hair shorter and dyed it blondish. She was tanner and a bit sunburned from overexposure to the sun, and was visibly trembling. All she had with her was a ratty knapsack with some clothes in it.”
On the drive to their hotel room, the family members learned about Ivy Merck’s ordeals over the previous three weeks.
“Ivy ... survived sleeping on the beach and had several people that helped her at key times with food and protection,” Chad Merck said in his Websleuths.com posting.
“I am sure there were many harrowing experiences over these weeks on the street, but God provided protection for her to leave unharmed physically,” he said.
“Ivy had her laptop, money and most of her belongings stolen in separate instances, but she survived the experience and was reunited with family. Our family is overjoyed with the outcome.”
Steven Merck did not know if or when his daughter would return to Athens, because seeing to her emotional needs comes first.
“We’re going to take care of her and do whatever it takes to get Ivy back to society and back to just being Ivy,” he said.
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I'm not really a religious person but how could this have been anything other than Divine Intervention? I suppose it could be a coincidence. What a story!