Help Sought In Tulsa Woman's Disappearance

By Lori Fullbright, The News on 6

TULSA, OK -- Tulsa Police can't figure out why a 41-year-old woman has disappeared.

Althedia Vaught is the mother of three and a dedicated health worker.

On January 19, she was home, in night clothes, and cleaning house. She told her kids she was tired and going to bed because she worked the next day.

But something made her grab her phone and leave the house.

"I think someone gave her a call because she left her TV and heater on, and that's not normal," her daughter Teanna Thomas said. "If she went to the club, she turned all that off."

Teanna says Althedia enjoyed listening to music on weekends at the Sax, but was not dressed to go out and wasn't planning to go anywhere that night.

She says when her mother's phone kept going to voicemail the next day and she didn't show up for work, Teanna knew something was wrong.

"They said she hadn't called in or anything," Teanna said. "That's unusual for my mom. She goes to work every day, doesn't miss a day."

Police found Althedia's 1995 green Infinity J30 at the Hillcrest Medical Center parking lot, which led them to a surveillance video taken the night she disappeared.

About five minutes before midnight, a white pickup truck pulls in, with a company logo on the side that includes several triangles.

Thirty-five minutes later, her vehicle pulls into the parking lot. They can't tell yet who was driving it.

"The Chevrolet pickup truck was not identified as a Hillcrest security vehicle," Detective Marcus Harper said. "So unless it was visiting the hospital, it probably shouldn't have been in that parking lot that time of night."

A baby boy is the other reason Althedia's family believes something terrible has happened to her. Teanna and her two brothers don't believe she would have missed Teanna giving birth.

"I cry every night, knowing my mom is not here to see my baby," Teanna said. "I wish somebody would say something."

Police also fear Althedia is hurt or dead and need help to figure out what happened and where she is. They urge people with information to call Crime Stoppers at 596-COPS.