RUSK COUNTY — Nearly two weeks after she was first reported missing, there is still no sign of Kimberly Flint.
It all started with an investigation into a one-vehicle crash on September 27. When troopers arrived on the scene, there was no sign of the driver, Kimberly Flint.
"About 45 minutes to an hour later before, we got the call of the missing person," Rusk County Sheriff Jeff Price said.
The person reported missing was Kimberly Flint. It was then that investigators realized the crash and the missing persons report were connected.
As is standard procedure, the Rusk County Sheriff's Office launched a criminal investigation into Flint's disappearance. That investigation will continue to be classified as "criminal" until there is evidence of whether or not foul play is involved. A missing persons report technically is under a civil case.
"First instinct I had was my mother due to her previous issue with mental illness and things like that," Kimberly's son James Flint said. "It was just me and the deputy sheriff's that were searching that night along with a volunteer firefighter that offered assistance with a thermal scope."
That night was the first of many days to come searching for Kimberly.
I was just looking for any signs of my mother," James Flint said. "Just anything that I could tell from laid down grass from walking, disturbed earth mud, things like that, scrapes, anything on the scene that could tell me a story of where my mother could've went in the woods, or if she was picked up on that roadway.
Authorities are left with trying to process any evidence they can find in Flint's vehicle. Sheriff Price says it is likely the accident did not cause Flint any injuries, but there is not a lot they can determine from the vehicle. While there is no trace of Flint, investigators do have a theory.
"Does not look like that she left the asphalt. Maybe she was walking down a road, somebody stopped to assist her," Sheriff Price said. "And possibly [she] got into the vehicle whether willingly or unwillingly."
Investigators are not ready to consider this case a kidnapping.
"We have not located any indication that there was any type of a struggle," Sheriff Price said. "There was no body fluids of any kind that we could find."
However, James Flint, a former accident investigator in the U.S. Marines, is reluctant to accept that theory.
"I don't think she willingly got in that vehicle and drove off," Flint said.
James says he is worried as a son, but is not ready to mourn his mother yet.
"There's not a grieving part yet because we haven't found my mother," James Flint said. "My mother's out there somewhere. We love her and let's bring Kim home."
The family has put up a $5,000 reward for any information that leads to finding Kim Flint. Crime stoppers has added $1,000 to that amount.