Search continues for missing Gaston single mother Liz Stonger. Devoted single mother, 27, hasn’t used her cellphone or bank card since Oct. 14. Update:12/3/12:Authorities discover body in car in McDowell County.An autopsy confirmed it is Liz's body!

By Joe DePriest
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Posted: Friday, Nov. 02, 2012

Elizabeth “Liz” Stonger, 27, is 5-feet-3, 180 pounds with red hair and hazel eyes. She may be driving a 1998 Chevy Lumina with N.C. license tags ABC-6609. The car is a faded burgundy color and has a “Happy Bunny” sticker on the fuel door. There is also a stick figure family sticker on the back windshield that resembles a woman and child. Anyone with information about her whereabouts can call the Belmont Police Department at 704-825-3792.
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Most roads scared Liz Stonger.

The Gaston County single mother missing since Oct. 14 didn’t like to drive – especially on interstates – and seldom ventured far from home.

The trip she took most often was to Belmont’s Walmart, where she worked as a cashier. Getting there took about 10 minutes on I-85, but Stonger stuck to side roads even though it was longer.

Three weeks ago, she hit the road at lunchtime – and vanished.

Friends describe Stonger, 27, as a devoted mother who needed the Walmart job to support herself and 2-year-old son. It makes no sense to them that she’d walk away from both without a word. Since she left, there have been no phone calls, text messages, Facebook messages, emails or bank transactions.

“I don’t see her running off and leaving her son behind,” said her sister, Amy Stonger, 29, of Gastonia. “We’re a close-knit family. She’s a good person. She spent all her energy on her job and her kid.”

On Oct. 14, Liz Stonger clocked out on lunch break at Walmart around 1:15 p.m.

According to Belmont Police, a store video shows Liz Stonger waving at people in the parking lot before she got into her 1998 Chevrolet Lumina and drove away.

That’s the last known sighting. Authorities determined the last signal from Stonger’s cellphone came from the McDowell County/Marion area around 11 p.m. that same day.

Lt. Basil Marett with Belmont Police Department said the cellphone hasn’t been used since, nor has Stonger’s bank card.

He said authorities are doing a forensic review of Stonger’s computer and also working with law enforcement agencies in the Blue Ridge Mountains to find the vehicle.

Police have reports from people in McDowell County who thought they might have spotted Stonger.

“We’ve talked to them,” Marett said. “But there’s no way to verify anything. Our hope is that she became upset and said ‘Hey, I want some time away.’ Our goal, if she doesn’t want to come back, is just to know she’s safe and OK.”

Stonger, a native of Syracuse, N.Y., moved to Gaston County with her family about 10 years ago. Amy Stonger said her sister majored in geology at UNC Charlotte but had to drop out after she became pregnant. Liz Stonger lived with her mother, Deb Grover, in the town of Lowell.

Things had been tough in the household. Amy Stonger said her mom, a graduate of Syracuse University, worked in IT projects management, but jobs had come and gone.

Grover hasn’t worked in a long time and now faces foreclosure. That possibility weighed on her sister, Stonger said.

Liz Stonger knew she could move in with her sister but would still consider herself homeless.

“Life was hard,” Amy Stonger said. “She was a single mom who couldn’t afford much. She was a homebody who didn’t go out. She had a few acquaintances, but not any friends.”

Stonger can’t see her sister suddenly deciding to run away from it all. As far as she knows, her sister had no connections in western North Carolina and knew little about the area.

Liz Stonger’s fear of driving would have intensified on unfamiliar mountain roads, her sister feels.

Liz Stonger apparently didn’t pack anything – leaving only with the clothes she wore to work.

The disappearance is as baffling to Liz Stongers’ co-workers as it is to family members.

Walmart cashier Kyesha Gaffney spoke with Stonger at work on the morning of Oct. 14. “She seemed fine to me,” said Gaffney, 26, of Belmont. “But you never know. She never told her personal business.”

In the year or so Stonger had worked at Walmart, “she was nice to me,” Gaffney said. “She was a caring person, a sociable, kind-hearted person.”

Stonger’s disappearance “is kind of scary,” Gaffney said. “I don’t understand what happened. I hope she’s OK.”

On Saturdays, Amy Stronger, a student at UNC Charlotte, goes to McDowell County to hand out fliers about her missing sister.

As she does, she thinks of the 2-year-old son, who often asks about his mother.

“We change the subject,” Stronger said. “We say, ‘She had to go away for a while.’ I feel horrible for him.”

Family members “hold on to hope she’s coming home,” Stronger said. “You’ve got to hold on to hope. We just want to know something.”

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Family, friends continue search for missing Belmont woman

Posted: Nov 17, 2012 2:22 PM CST
Updated: Nov 17, 2012 6:32 PM CST
By Kay Johnson - bio | email

BELMONT, NC (WBTV) -
Family and friends continued a search Saturday for missing Belmont mother Elizabeth "Liz" Stonger.

Stonger was last seen Sunday, October 14th at the Belmont Wal-Mart.

Stonger is 5'3" and 180 pounds. She has red hair and hazel eyes.

A family friend told WBTV people are searching areas in and around Belmont. They also spent the day handing out flyers.

"A lot of people don't know about it unless they just briefly see it on the news...it brings up people thinking I might have saw her and at this point that's all we have is people that might of and then go find out if it is true," Tara Morell said. "It's been a while so we are just trying to do anything...somebody could be traveling through..see it recognize her."

The family has contacted the CUE Center for Missing Persons to help with the case. Volunteers with the CUE center recently found missing teens Jake Ziegler and Ray Pierce. The two went missing in mid-October on a trip to Myrtle Beach.

Police say Stonger's cell phone pinged in a spot near the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Stonger may be driving a faded burgundy 1998 Chevy Lumina with NC license plate ABC-6609. The car has a "Happy Bunny" sticker on the fuel door. There is also a stick figure on the back windshield. It shows a woman and child.

If you have any information about Stonger's whereabouts, please call the Belmont Police Department: 704.825.3792

Hear more from Morell, Stonger's sister and an update on another missing mom case tonight at 11 p.m. on WBTV.

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Authorities discover body in car in McDowell County

by WCNC.com Staff
Posted on December 3, 2012 at 11:01 AM
Updated today at 1:24 PM
Related:
Belmont mother, 27, last seen at Walmart
Authorities seek clues in Belmont mom's disappearance
MCDOWELL COUNTY, N.C. -- Authorities in McDowell County found a car down an embankment with a body in it Monday morning.

Authorities said a car was found down the embankment off of U.S. Highway 221. This is the same area where authorities are looking for missing Belmont mother, Elizabeth "Liz" Stonger.

Stonger was last seen in mid-October as she left the Walmart in Belmont on her lunch break. Her sister said she last used her cell phone a minute after clocking out to check her voice mail.

She has a 2-year old son and lived in Lowell.

Investigators have been focusing their search in the McDowell area in the last couple of weeks after discovering Stonger's last cell reception came from that area.

Stonger was driving a burgundy 1998 Chevy Lumina with North Carolina tag ABC6609.

Authorities have not identified the body, but did say Stonger's car plates and VIN match those of the car found in the ravine.

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Missing woman's family pleads for help with funeral arrangements

Posted: Dec 07, 2012 2:17 PM CST
Updated: Dec 07, 2012 10:25 PM CST
By Jessica Sells - email

BELMONT, NC (WBTV) -
The family of Liz Stonger is still reeling from her disappearance and death.

Liz's car was discovered down a steep embankment Monday morning. An autopsy confirmed it was Liz's body in the wrecked car.

Friday, WBTV talked to Liz's sister Amy, who is now taking care of her sister's three-year-old.

Amy says Liz's body is ready to be released, but the family doesn't have the money for funeral arrangements.

"We haven't planned anything. I guess we didn't think that the body was gonna be released...I'm like in shock really...it just feels funny…it's hard to deal," Amy told WBTV by phone Friday.

Amy continued, "I don't want to leave it to my mom, because my heart breaks for her every day. I have children of my own, and I can only imagine the pain that she feels and she thinks she has to be strong for all of us...I feel horrible for my mother. And then this happens and she feels worthless and she's like ‘I can't even pay for my daughter', (voice breaks) ya know?"

With Liz's son, Amy is now raising five children. Her mom is trying to save her home from foreclosure, her younger brother is a college student with a child of his own, and her younger sister is also in college. Amy says Liz didn't leave behind any financial resources.

Amy says the family is interested in cremation, but the estimate the family received shows the cost is $3,000. To also have a viewing or any type of memorial, the cost would increase.

The Stonger family set up an account for donations to help with the funeral arrangements. So far, there have not been any donations. Amy says the family is not affiliated with any church that could help.

Amy said there is some relief that Liz's body was found, but it doesn't answer all of the questions.

"Don't get me wrong – I do have some relief that her body has been found…But…all these new questions: What was she doing? Why was she there? What happened? I probably will never know all of the answers, really."

The investigation is ongoing.

If you would like to make a donation, please visit the Wells Fargo branch in Belmont and request to make a deposit to the Elizabeth Stonger Memorial Fund.

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Positive ID for body of NC woman found in wreck

The Associated Press
Posted: Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2012

ASHEVILLE, N.C. Investigators in McDowell County have confirmed the identity of a woman whose body was discovered in a wrecked car.

The Belmont Police Department said Wednesday that an autopsy confirmed the body was that of 27-year-old Elizabeth Estelle Stonger, a single mother who was last seen Oct. 14 when she left her job as a cashier at Walmart in Belmont on her lunch break.

Police said autopsy results and a cause of death have not been released, and the investigation is ongoing.

North Carolina Highway Patrol Sgt. Kevin Owens said at the time the wreck was found off U.S. 221 south of Marion on Dec. 3. Owens said the car fell about 150 feet down a steep embankment off a rural road.

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This is so sad!!!!!

Yes, it is. She was so young..had her entire life in front of her.

Posted: Apr 25, 2013 3:54 PM EDT
Updated: Apr 25, 2013 3:59 PM EDT

CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) -
A missing woman who was found dead in her car at the end of 2012 died from a taking a lethal combination of prescription drugs, according to the autopsy report from the state medical examiner's office.

Elizabeth Estelle Stonger, 27, went missing on Oct. 14, 2012. She was last seen at the Walmart in Belmont.

NC Highway Patrol found Stonger's car down an embankment off Spooky Hollow Road off of U.S. Highway 221 in southern McDowell County.

An autopsy confirmed the body was Stonger's.

Foul play was not suspected in her death.

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