Family and friends search for missing Yonkers woman

YONKERS

One camera put the missing minister at a pizza shop.

Right now they're piecing together a timeline hoping it leads directly to her safe return home.

It's a city wide search for Ethel Monroe with fliers and digital signs blanketing the area.

Family members say Monroe walked out of her Yonkers home early Sunday morning and hasn't been seen since.

The 65-year-old minister is a cancer patient who needs her medication.

"I think this whole stage four cancer threw her for a loop. I think she doesn't understand why she got so sick and maybe God was punishing her," said DaQueen Monroe, the missing woman's daughter.

Family, friends, and Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano held a press conference turning to the public for help.

Police are working with a surveillance video showing Minister Monroe outside "Pizza Pizza" on Warburton Avenue about a block from her home.

She is seen limping out of the restaurant, then sitting on a bench around 5:30 a.m., about an hour after she vanished.

"We just want to keep the pressure out there. Yonkers is a very big city, but if everyone is talking to somebody that should cover the whole county," Mayor Spano said.

Police say there have been many sightings of Mrs. Monroe; a county maintenance worker spotted her at Macy Park in Ardsley six hours after she disappeared, and six miles from home police dogs picked up her scent, but the trail quickly ran cold.

Wednesday night, church members passed out fliers outside Christian Love Tabernacle and they also prayed for the grandmother's safe return.

"She loves her family. She loves her church family. I just pray and pray that we'll find my sister and very, very soon," said Lillian Smalls, the missing woman's sister.

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