As the hunt unfolds for Kerry Jones, a Florida woman who disappeared from her home earlier this month after an alleged domestic dispute, police have seized property belonging to Jones' boyfriend.
Jackie "Nick" Kelly's home in Mandarin, Florida, is the last place police say Jones, 46, was seen prior to her disappearance. Police visited the home Friday night to search for clues and drove away with Kelly's truck, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office.
Contacted by The Huffington Post on Monday, Christian Hancock, a spokesman for the sheriff's office, did not elaborate on the seizure and said the application for the search warrant is not being released at this time.
"We seized the vehicle, but what they found in it I couldn’t tell you [because] it's an ongoing investigation," Hancock said.
The vehicle was taken one day after police conducted searches around Kelly's residence and in a nearby river, First Coast News reported.
Jones was last heard from on Feb. 7. Kelly reported her missing to police two days later. Kelly told investigators he and his girlfriend argued on Feb. 7, the day he said he last saw her, according to the sheriff's incident report.
"Ms. Jones got upset over a post that [Kelly] made on Facebook and left the residence," the report says.
HuffPost was unable to reach Kelly for comment.
Deputies later found Jones' tan 1996 Toyota Avalon parked outside Bealls, a department store in Jacksonville, Florida, where she works as a cashier.
Store surveillance video obtained by police shows Jones leaving work in the car on Feb. 7, at 2:37 p.m. The car was seen returning to the shopping center parking lot roughly four hours later, at which time police say an unidentified person rode away from the area on a bicycle.
Jones' friend, Tommie Ann Jones, told HuffPost last week that it's extremely unlikely her friend, whom she described as a "devoted mother" of two older boys, would disappear and lose contact with friends and family.
"She's a very family-orientated person and stays in touch on a daily basis," she said.
Tommie Ann Jones, who was once married to Kerry Jones' ex-husband, said the two women are "more like family than friends."
Tommie Ann said that Kerry, who is legally deaf, is originally from Pell City, Alabama. She moved to Jacksonville in October, after she met Kelly on a dating website.
"She told me she really cared for him and was moving down there," Tommie Ann said. "She thought that was what she needed to do to be happy."
On Saturday, Jacksonville's WJAX-TV reported that it had obtained a copy of a Feb. 11 police report in which Kelly told police that Kerry Jones had knocked him unconscious with a glass cup on Feb. 7. The report indicates that blood, broken glass and a bloody paper towel were found at the scene. It's not clear whether police have determined whose blood it was.
The police report obtained by WJAX-TV appears to match the details included in a Feb. 15 Facebook post made under Kelly's name.
"Kerry was very intoxicated that night. At some point she hit me in the head with a very heavy coffee cup and knocked me out," the Facebook post reads. "When I regained consciousness the next morning, I was laying in a big puddle of blood from a gash to my head. I realized that Kerry was gone. I thought at the time that she might think she had killed me, or at least seriously injured me, and she left and was hiding out because she was worried."
Police on Monday released a domestic battery report to HuffPost that Kelly filed against Jones on Feb. 16. Kelly, who officers noted had "apparently been drinking heavily," acknowledged he did not initially disclose the alleged assault to the investigating officer when he reported Jones missing. The copy of the report is otherwise heavily redacted.
Despite having seized his vehicle, authorities said Kelly is not considered a suspect or person of interest in his girlfriend's disappearance. However, they have apparently not ruled out the possibility of foul play.
"There are things that are obviously making us look a little deeper that she might not be missing under her accord," Hancock told HuffPost.
Jones' son Aaron told WJAX-TV that Kelly is currently in a psych ward. He also said investigators have told him he needs to "prepare myself for the worst."
"That hurt real bad," he said. "I hope nothing bad [has happened]."
Kerry Jones is described as a white female with brown hair and brown eyes. She is 5 feet tall and weighs 120 pounds.
Anyone with information on Kerry Jones' whereabouts is asked to call the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office at 904-630-0500 or Crime Stoppers at 1-866-845-TIPS.
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