Bridgewater Woman Who Helps Find The Missing Could Face Homelessness

BRIDGEWATER, NJ — Bridgewater local Nancy Schaefer has devoted the past 11 years of her life to helping families find their missing loved ones at no cost to them.

Now, with bills mounting, she is facing eviction on Aug. 26 and needs donations by the end of Wednesday and needs your help.

Schaefer founded Missing in America 11 years ago, where she used her own money to help families find their missing loved ones while working with law enforcement and private investigators.

She never charges for her services and has since used up all of her money, including retirement and life savings.

Additionally, she is also out $10,000 from a side job. An attorney in Sparta took her case free of charge to help her recoup her losses, but without that money she can no longer pay her bills and will be evicted by Friday.

“I have to sell everything I have and be homeless,” Schaefer told Patch, while holding back tears.

She has lived at her Bridgewater home for five years and never missed a rent payment. Despite that, she is being evicted on Aug. 26.

A GoFundMe page was created by LaCreis Renee Kidd, a woman Schaefer helped to find her daughter. The page is looking to raise $5,000 to help Schaefer pay her rent, bills and keep Missing in America afloat.

Schaefer is worried more about Missing in America than herself.

“I would have to stop working on my organization,” Schaefer said. “That’s like my biggest fear of it all.”

Over the years, Schaefer has worked on local cases such as the Hillsborough college student Paige Aiello, whose body was recovered in the Hudson River in 2013.

And she was working on helping to find a teenager who went missing from the Jersey Gardens in Elizabeth and was recovered in New York City.

Currently she is working on 208 cases.

“It costs thousands of dollars and hundreds of person hours to recover a missing loved one. Nancy of Missing in America could easily charge thousands for her work of recovering missing persons. Despite her current situation, Nancy continues to help the families,” stated Kidd on the GoFundMe page.

Over the years Schaefer has worked on countless cases and has expanded to help families nationwide.

She started the organization for “personal reasons” and still encourages families in New Jersey to call her right away for mental response and for those involved in domestic violence. She says by the time a case becomes public it can be too late, so the sooner someone calls her the better.

Schaefer doesn’t think twice about what she has invested in the organization and will do everything to help a family.

“When you have family members call you crying, begging for help because a loved one is missing you kind of don’t think about yourself and your own situation and just do what you have to do," Schaefer said.

To learn more about Missing in America visit its website or Facebook page.

To donate, vist the GoFundMe page.

Image via Gofundme

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