Venus Stewart Citizen Search: Local Man Calling All Volunteers to Find Missing Michigan Mom

ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, Mich. (CBS/WWMT) A West Michigan man not connected to law enforcement is spearheading a volunteer search for Venus Stewart, the mother who went missing on April 26 from her parents' front yard.

PICTURES: Venus Stewart Missing

Since her disappearance, volunteers have been hanging up fliers all around the area as Michigan state police searched in woods and water for any sign of her. According to CBS affiliate WWMT, investigators were out for five hours on Wednesday but came home empty handed.

Now, a local man is calling on the public to start helping with a ground search on Friday.

"You gotta do something," Denny Olson told the local CBS station. "What if this was your daughter or granddaughter?"

According to police, Venus' estranged husband, Douglas Stewart, is currently the only person of interest in the case.

Olson doesn't know Venus Stewart's family, but to him that's irrelevant. He believes the community as a whole needs to help bring some resolution to the case. He is calling on volunteers to show up at the park on Colon Road in Colon, Mich. on Friday at 9:00 am.

Olson told WWMT that he isn't trying to interfere with police, but knows there's a lot of ground to cover.

"MSP, county sheriff don't have enough officers to do it," Olson told WWMT. "It's time for John Doe to step up to the plate."

Stewart, a 32-year-old mother, disappeared on April 26 from her parents' home in Colon, over 80 miles south of Lansing. According to Stewart's mother, Therese McComb, her daughter had gone outside early that morning in her slippers and pajamas to mail a letter and never came back.

According to WWMT, a neighbor reported seeing a man crouched behind a gray pick-up truck that was parked in an empty lot across from the house around the time that she went missing.

Anyone with information about the Venus Stewart case is asked to call Michigan State Police at 269-483-7611.

Story Contributed by CBS Affiliate WWMT

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