Citizen Staff Writer
RYN GARGULINSKI
rynski@tucsoncitizen.com
Valentine’s Day means something far different than candies and flowers for the family of Kay Read.
Read, 62, was last seen on Valentine’s Day 2008, at a dinner with her sister and mother, before she disappeared the following day.
Her family is holding a reception in her honor at 4 p.m. Sunday at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, 8051 E. Broadway.
“One year later, we are still hoping, praying and searching,” her family said in a statement issued through Tucson’s Homicide Survivors.
Tucson police declared Read’s case a homicide in December, but her family refuses to give up hope.
The reward was increased to $20,000, thanks to fundraising efforts, for information that leads to the case’s closure.
The Pima County Attorney’s Office anonymous tip line is offering an additional reward of up to $1,000 for information that leads to an arrest or indictment of the person responsible.
Read, a Sunday school teacher and medical records clerk, had called her mother upon returning home after the Feb. 14 dinner. But calls to Read the following morning were not answered.
Read’s sister, Mary Seagle, went to check on her sister at Read’s home on East Marigold Circle, near East Irvington and South Kolb roads.
Seagle found her sister’s door unlocked and her van missing.
Read’s glasses and leg braces, both things she never went without, were in the house.
“Law enforcement has done an exhaustive search,” the family’s statement said. “Family and volunteers have helped search for Kay. They have distributed thousands of fliers with Kay’s picture.”
Authorities also combed the areas around her home, alleys, ditches and the Los Reales Landfill to no avail.
Shortly after Read’s disappearance, her van was found – on fire – and someone had also attempted to use her ATM card.
A person of interest was captured in a grainy surveillance video but no arrests were made.
“I still think she’s out there. I’m not going to give up that thought,” Seagle said in a previous story in the Tucson Citizen. “I know God has miracles. Until they prove different, I’m not going to change my mind.”
More information may be found on the family’s Web site at www.findkayread.com.
Read’s family and officials urge anyone with information to call the anonymous tip line at 88-CRIME.
Service planned for Tucson woman a year after disappearance