Search Continues For Missing Army Veteran From San Diego

SAN DIEGO, CA – The search continues Saturday for an Army veteran from San Diego who went missing over the Labor Day weekend. Concerned friends and community volunteers planned to canvas the neighborhood around Julia Jacobson's North Park home.

The 37-year-old was last seen about 6:30 a.m. last Saturday with her wheaten terrier, Boogie, at a Serra Mesa 7-Eleven, according to a social media page dedicated to finding the retired Army captain, who deployed to Iraq twice during her military career.

A friend received text messages from Jacobson's cell phone around 9:30 p.m. that night stating that she was in the Palm Springs area and planned to continue on to Big Bear, according to the San Diego Police Department.

Jacobson's company car, a white Chevrolet Equinox, was found abandoned Thursday morning in the 2600 block of Monroe Avenue, a few blocks from her home, with the keys in the ignition and the windows partially rolled down, according to San Diego police.

Police subsequently determined that Jacobson had been in Ontario in the Inland Empire on Saturday night, San Diego police Lt. Mike Holden said. It is not yet known why she was there and whether she indeed had been in the Riverside County desert.

Detectives have spoken with Jacobson's ex-husband, who lives in Arizona, and found him cooperative, according to Holden.

"Her family is extremely concerned for her safety and she has never gone missing in the past," officials said.

The missing woman's older sister, Casey Jacobson of North Dakota, described the circumstances of her sibling's disappearance as puzzling. She said her sister, a corporate real estate broker for 7-Eleven, would never willingly leave her company car unsecured with the ignition key and a company gas card inside.

Casey Jacobson also said it was odd that her sister would visit the San Bernardino Mountains last weekend, since she recently secured a new job and had pressing arrangements to attend to regarding the change of employment. The texts the friend received about the trek to Big Bear did, however, include statements that her sister would have been likely to make, she said.

People canvassing the North Park neighborhood met at 9 a.m. Saturday at Garfield Elementary School, according to the "Help Find Julia Jacobson" Facebook page.

Jacobson is a 5-foot-7-inch, roughly 150-pound white woman with brown eyes, long blond hair and a tattoo on her hip of a crab holding a flower. A surveillance photo shows that she was wearing shorts and flip-flops when she visited the Aero Drive convenience store on the day she vanished.

Anyone who might be able to help locate Jacobson was asked to call San Diego police at (619) 531-2000.

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Army Veteran Reported Missing; Car Found Abandoned In San Diego

City News Service contributed to this report.

Image via San Diego Police Department