Four days after young Toowoomba mum Jana Armstrong disappeared, her devastated sister says she just wants to bring her home.
Ms Armstrong’s family and friends spent Saturday combing through bushland at Preston, on Toowoomba’s south side, which is one of the locations where police say her car was seen late on the night she went missing.
The group were looking for any clues as to what may have happened.
Jana Armstrong’s family say there is no way she would have abandoned her four-month-old son. (ABC Suppled: Faith Isaacs)
Detectives spent Saturday trawling through CCTV, traffic and surveillance camera footage after searching several areas of interest on Friday on foot.
Ms Armstrong, a 30-year-old support worker, was last seen at her Newtown home on the afternoon of Tuesday, July 7.
Her four-month-old baby boy, Deshal, who was found at the home with his father, is being cared for by Ms Armstrong’s sister, Faith Isaacs.
Faith Isaacs is looking after her sister’s four-month-old baby while the search continues. (ABC Southern Qld: Grace Nakamura)
Ms Isaacs was one of the last people to see her sister. The couple met for brunch at a cafe on Tuesday and police have released CCTV footage of Ms Armstrong driving in the cafe car park, pushing her baby in a pram and walking in the cafe holding the little boy.
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Nursing her baby nephew, Ms Isaacs said on Saturday the family will keep searching.
“We’ll keep on searching. She’s out there somewhere, so we’ve got to find her,” Ms Isaacs said.
“I would really appreciate if people could just keep on looking. We just need to bring her home. She’s very loved, so she needs to come back. I appreciate the people who have already helped us look. If we can just keep on looking and see if there’s any more locations that the police put out, then just keep looking.”
Faith Isaacs, her partner Michael, their two-year-old son, Thiago, and her sister’s baby, Deshal. (ABC Southern Qld: Grace Nakamura)
Ms Isaacs has no hope that her older sister will be found alive.
“I realised within four hours of when she went missing that she was no longer with us. That’s how out of character this is. [Her baby] is her world. He means everything to her. She just wouldn’t leave his side.”
Ms Isaacs and her husband Michael lost a baby girl in May after an emergency caesarean and a placental abruption.
Ms Armstrong’s little boy was born at the beginning of March.
“They were supposed to be growing up together, our two babies. We’ve literally swapped babies. Like she’s holding my baby and I’m holding hers.
“We were more than just sisters, we were best friends. We saw each other every day [or] every second day.”
Not hearing her sister’s voice in the past four days has been hard.
“Today, actually, there’s been a couple of times where I thought, ‘Oh, I’ll ask Jana that’ or ‘she’ll know what to do, she’ll help me’.”
Ms Armstrong’s friend and co-worker, Norah Vinson, was one of those helping to search at Preston on Saturday.
Norah Vinson works with Jana Armstrong and was out searching on Saturday. (ABC Southern Qld: Dan McCray)
“We’ve done a massive walk this morning. We haven’t found anything but we’re not going to give up … she is a wonderful lady and this is out of character for Jana,” Ms Vinson said.
“I just hope that we actually find Jana safe and sound. That will be the best outcome. I want to give her a hug and see her again.”
The large group of volunteers searched at Preston Lookout, the RM Williams Reserve, an old quarry at Preston.
A group of family and friends searched bushland around Preston, south of Toowoomba. (ABC Southern Qld: Dan McCray)
On Saturday afternoon, five unmarked police cars and a police van were at the end of Charker Street in Darling Heights — another of the areas where police say Ms Armstrong’s car was seen on Tuesday night.
Ms Armstrong’s white Hyundai Kona was found abandoned about 500 metres from her home, at the corner of Jellicoe Street and Gordon Avenue, in the middle of the road, about 6am on July 8.
Police have said that the car’s location had immediately raised suspicion.
Forensic officers searched Jana Armstrong’s house on Friday. (Picture: ABC Southern Qld/Aisling Brennan )
Police have since uncovered places the car was seen around Toowoomba on the evening of July 7, after trawling through CCTV footage.
It was seen at Tabletop Drive, Rangeville, between 9 and 10pm, then at Preston Road, Preston, about 10pm, and Charker Street at Darling Heights about 10:15pm. Between 3am and 5am on July 8 the car was spotted at Gordon Avenue, Newtown, the street where Ms Armstrong lived.
Police have said Ms Armstrong’s disappearance is suspicious and they are working around the clock to uncover what has happened to the young mum.
Police and SES have already done extensive searches of Black Gully Reserve at Newtown, which sits at the end of the street where Ms Armstrong lives.
And they have searched a rugged area at Tabletop Drive at Rangeville.
A police spokesperson said on Saturday that police are calling on anyone with information, CCTV, dash cam or other footage to contact them.
