Nassau County deputies who have been searching for a missing mother who disappeared over a week ago have reason to believe she is not alive and have a suspect in custody, Sheriff Bill Leeper announced Tuesday afternoon.
The foreboding update came just hours before a Tuesday evening vigil organized by Joleen Cummings' friends and loved ones.
Leeper declined to say what evidence investigators had found that led them to believe Cummings is no longer alive, but said that a woman, 50-year-old Jennifer Sybert, was arrested Tuesday morning and is considered a suspect in Cummings' disappearance.
Sybert, whose real name is Kimberly Kessler, is charged with car theft and is being held on $500,000 bond. Leeper said she was the last person to see Cummings, who was reported missing by her ex-husband on May 13 when she did not show up to pick up the couple's three children.
The 34-year-old mother was last seen leaving work at Tangles Hair Salon on State Road 200 on May 12. Deputies showed up at the salon last Tuesday, when it was scheduled to reopen, so they could talk to Sybert, a fellow stylist, but she never showed up for work.
Later that day, Cummings' SUV was found parked outside a Home Depot, and surveillance video nearby shows Sybert parking the car around 1:17 a.m. Sunday and getting out of the driver's seat, but there's no sign of Cummings.
As investigators continued following leads in the search for Cummings, they also began looking for Sybert, Leeper said.
They found Sybert and her black Kia Soul at a rest area on I-95 northbound in St. Johns County on Wednesday, parked between two semi trucks. She had apparently been living in her car and moving it around, Leeper said.
Based on the surveillance video showing her driving Cummings' SUV, Sybert was charged with grand theft auto, Leeper said. Mug shots from her arrest show visible cuts around one of her eyes and a scratch on her hand.
You can read a longer version of this story on our News4Jax partner’s website and see a timeline of events in connection with the case.
