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Missing Missouri woman called mother crying and said ‘he wont let me leave’ moments before vanishing in Texas

‘She sounded terrified and scared,’ Ms Holt’s mother said

Graig Graziosi
Friday 18 March 2022 19:23 GMT
Related video: Appeal for information leading to missing four year old girl
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A Missouri woman went missing after making a desperate phone call to her mother begging for help.

Dana Holt, 30, disappeared on 2 March. She was last seen on surveillance video leaving a train with a man who appeared to be helping her with her bag.

A short time later, she called her mother, Deborah, in a panic. She was crying on the call.

“She sounded terrified and scared. I was like ‘where are you?’ She was like, ‘Oh my gosh. He’s getting out of the shower. I got to go.’ That was it,” Deborah said in an interview with KTVI. “I didn’t get to say I love you or anything.”

Ms Holt’s sister, Audrey Clay, was in the room with her mother when her sister called. She has since vowed to find her sister.

“If my sister sees this, I want her to know I love her,” she told KXAS-TV. “I never would imagine I’d be doing this. Never. She’s my only sibling, and I won’t stop looking for her.”

She said she heard Ms Holt say on the call that the man "won't let me leave" and that she couldn't "get any of my stuff”.

Ms Holt is originally from St Louis and is believed to have disappeared in Dallas. Her family members rushed to Dallas to begin searching for her.

The family began posting flyers for their missing loved one and searched remote areas around Dallas for the woman.

“I did everything that we could. We put up flyers everywhere we could think of. I searched woods, ditches, searched strip clubs, all of that for four days,” Ms Clay told Fox4.

Dana Holt, 30, was last seen leaving a train station in Dallas with a man who appeared to be helping her with her bags. She later called her mother in a panic saying the man would not let her leave.
Dana Holt, 30, was last seen leaving a train station in Dallas with a man who appeared to be helping her with her bags. She later called her mother in a panic saying the man would not let her leave. (Dallas Police Department)

Ms Clay last saw her sister boarding an Amtrak in downtown St Louis around 7pm on the day before she disappeared.

“I just feel every day that goes by, it just gets scarier, and I just get more fearful,” she said. “It’s so scary to know that she’s thousands of miles somewhere, and I have no clue where, and I cannot help her.”

Coffee Wright, the CEO of St Louis nonprofit Missing Person Task Force Inc, told Fox4 that the first 48 hours are crucial after a person goes missing. She gave her advice to the family, instructing them to return home and continue their search.

“Parents, family, head back to Dallas. Head back to Dallas and start passing out flyers all over. Cover as much ground as you can. Get as many people as you can to volunteer. You got to be her foot soldiers. Also, go on social media every day, every day, showing people her photos and making people care,” she said.

Dana Holt is a Black woman with blond hair and brown eyes. She is approximately 5 foot 9 inches and weighs about 250 pounds. Her last known attire was a black jacket, black pants and she has a tattoo on her neck and chest.

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