MO MO - Echo Michelle Lloyd, 47, no bank & cellphone activity, Edwards, Benton Co, 10 May 2020

Until someone is brought in for another charge and LE puts the heat on to get them to tell what they know - we might not find Echo until someone slips up.
JMO

It's just very sad, I follow another case where she disappeared around the same time, I don't understand the MASSIVE difference.:(
Thinking of Echo and her family, hoping they get their answers soon.
 
Echo’s Move to the House in Edwards, Missouri

Dana said Echo’s rape changed the course of her life. She was raped 10 years ago. After that, she didn’t like big crowds anymore. Echo only went to a few counseling sessions and she isolated herself from everyone for a while.

Dana said Echo’s relationship with Tony was complicated because Echo was complicated. Echo had had a lot of trauma in her life. She needed certain things to heal. Dana said no one she knows ever suspected Tony in Echo’s disappearance.

Dana, the friend here, seems to genuinely know and love Echo. And I empathize with Echo's withdrawing as a result of rape--sometimes it is too much to carry, and not something that can be "worked out" in a counselor's office, especially if the counselor isn't trauma-informed. I've been so surprised by the number of unhelpful rape counselors out there. My heart hurts for Echo, wherever she is, because the fact that she hadn't healed enough from the rape to be close to Tony, or the fact that she knew that, means it left her afraid. It changed her life. And so I have a hard time believing any free-spirit story here. Echo knew how dark this world can be, and I suspect she probably avoided it and developed patterns of protection. IMO.
 
Other Accounts of the Neighbor and the Last Time Echo Was Seen

Other women who had been in past relationships with the neighbor said the neighbor was “abusive” and “explosive.” They were still in fear of him. He was described as a person who is very possessive of other people. He wanted to control people and didn’t respect boundaries.

Echo was last officially seen on Mother’s Day, May 10. There was a receipt with Echo’s signature on it in Echo’s house. Echo was seen at Walmart and a Warsaw Dollar General. However, the official police statement said Echo was at the Climax Springs Dollar General. Kelsey doesn’t know if Echo went to both locations of Dollar General or if the police report saying Echo was in the Climax Springs Dollar General is an error. They are still trying to get clarification on that.

The clerk at one of the Dollar General stores contacted the family because she had a vivid memory of Echo.


Would love to know which Dollar General the clerk that remembers Echo was at.

The clerk knew she had seen Echo on Mother’s Day because Echo was trying to buy a cell phone and a prepaid card so she could call her children on Mother’s Day. Her check kept getting declined. Echo told the clerk someone had drained her account or taken her money, which is why the check wouldn’t go through.


So Echo told the clerk that someone had drained her account.

The clerk then describes her as flustered, “rushed and scatter-brained" (maybe it's dawning on Echo that the man outside in the car is the one who drained her account).

And we know that the neighbor told Kelsey he and Echo went to Wal-Mart on Mother's Day together, presumably in Echo's car which was missing from the garage when K. stopped by with card and gifts.

I am speculating here but I can see a line underneath this, and it worries me.

It worries me that Echo had to get back to the car and tell the neighbor her money was gone.

It worries me that she would be conflict-avoidant in that situation, and probably frightened.

It worries me that he seems like a man who likes control, and who gets excited by fear.

The neighbor is not looking good to me at all. :(
 
Current LE Status

Benton County Sheriff’s Office initially handled the investigation and the family was disappointed with how they were handling things but they know it’s a small, rural dept that lacks resources. They didn’t respond to requests for an interview and declined The Vanished’s record request. The Missouri Highway Patrol recently took over case. The Missouri Highway Patrol promised to respond to Marissa’s record request by Dec. 18, 2020 but hasn’t provided any records as of Jan. 15, 2021. They also never responded to her request for an interview. (That is unusual; Marissa, host of The Vanished Podcast, is amazing at getting information that others can’t. I think she is particularly tenacious.)

If you have any information, please call the Missouri Highway Patrol at 573-526-6178.

LE either has a working case here or else is doing a terrible job. Why can't they respond to record requests?

Speculating, but it seems kind of strange to give this to Highway Patrol. Is the neighbor related to anyone in local LE--is that why the case switched jurisdictions? Does anyone live in the area with info on Benton County Sheriff vs. Highway Patrol and what it would mean?
 
Do you think the neighbor held Echo hostage in her own home for a period of days between May 10 and May 15? Or maybe the neighbor was basically living with Echo in her home before she went missing. That might explain why Echo was discouraging Kelsey from visiting, making excuses that her house was too dirty, etc. I think it's most likely that the neighbor had been staying in Echo's home and she told him to leave after the Walmart excursion. It's hard to imagine how the confrontation might have gone down. Why was Echo's pistol away from her house in the woods? I think all signs point to the neighbor having done something to Echo.

These questions bother me too. I don't think he held Echo hostage because it would have been really risky. JMO whatever happened took place on Mother's Day and then the rest of his plans focused on how to get rid of evidence. I think and hope it happened quickly and I wonder if they both even got back to her house after shopping? Do we have evidence that she, herself, was ever home on Mother's Day?

Per my second bolded statement, me too @Choochoobella, me too. It breaks my heart. Echo seems like a genuinely beautiful human being.
 
As a native of Missouri (and still own property there) I'm completely disgusted with the way they're not doing adequate investigation into quite a few cases of women who have gone missing under mysterious circumstances.

Thank you @Betty P for being a voice for Echo. I feel like there's a weird lag in how LE is handling this, and it makes me feel better to know it's not my imagination. Because now I'm going to call those numbers you posted tomorrow and ask why this mother's life is being ignored.
 
I'd have to check, but I think there's been an issue with the investigation not including taking fingerprints, DNA, etc. IOW, the last place Echo was known to be - her home - was not treated as a crime scene. Same for her car, etc.
That would explain a lot. And it would account for the sinking feeling in my gut about how this case is being handled.
 
I listened to The Vanished podcast again where Echo's daughter, friend and cousin were interviewed.

Putting the neighbor aside for the moment and I understand the concern with him, BUT....

My concerns for Echo's state of mind:
- her home not being kept up. It was described as dirty by the daughter. This really stood out to the daughter as not normal. Was something happening with Echo's mental well being and she started to let things go such as cleaning her home?
-I'm bothered by her gun being found on her property. Why was it there? Did she walk off with it, then left it and continued on foot?
-She went to a store on the day she disappeared (IIRC) and the check she used to pay for her purchase did not go through at the register. Was she attempting to pass a bad check? Or innocently didn't know she didn't have the funds to cover the purchase? She made a statement that someone (IIRC) took her money and someone was waiting outside for her. Did she just say these things to the clerk because she was embarrassed? Maybe she really was alone and drove there alone. Again, what was going on here.

There's a big part of me that believes she was not doing well mentally leading up to her disappearance. That she came home and ventured off on foot, alone. IMO

It sounds like Echo's life was being taken over by a master manipulator, and yes, that can cause mental health issues. But I don't think we've been given any reason to believe Echo's mental health crisis (messy house, etc.) preceded the neighbor's attempt to take over her life. It wasn't her: it was him.
 

Staff online

Members online

Online statistics

Members online
210
Guests online
4,452
Total visitors
4,662

Forum statistics

Threads
592,334
Messages
17,967,687
Members
228,750
Latest member
AlternativeLuck
Back
Top