LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - The mother of a Fort Campbell soldier missing for nearly two months, Pfc. Shadow McClaine, said Wednesday that she's praying two other soldiers being held as "persons of interest" will lead authorities to her daughter.
"I'm praying that if they know something that they will tell anyone where she's at," London Wegrzyn told The Associated Press in a phone interview from her home in Yuba City, California.
She said she last heard from her 25-year-old daughter in an exchange of texts on Sept. 2. McClaine was dog sitting for a friend in Clarksville, Tennessee, that weekend and gave no indication anything was wrong, she said.
McClaine failed to report back for duty as an air traffic control tower operator at Fort Campbell after Labor Day, the Army said. Her car was found several days after her disappearance in Nashville, Tennessee, according to media reports. Those reports said her ex-husband, also a soldier, was arrested and booked into the Montgomery County Jail in Tennessee in early October on a warrant from outside the county.
Authorities at Fort Campbell, which straddles the Kentucky-Tennessee border, wouldn't say if McClaine's ex-husband is one of the "persons of interest." They said neither of the arrested soldiers has been charged in McClaine's disappearance, but would not otherwise comment on the investigation.
The developments leave McClaine's mother with more questions than answers. Wegrzyn spent weeks in the Clarksville area after her daughter's disappearance, and plans to return soon.
"I'll always hold out hope until proven wrong," she said
McClaine joined the Army in 2011 and served stints in Afghanistan and South Korea, her mother said. She was preparing to leave the military on Oct. 11, and looking forward to returning to civilian life, with plans to return to California and go to school to build on her interest in photography.