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Family and friends of Shonda Townsend gather Wednesday afternoon for an unveiling of a billboard north of Mineral Wells at U.S. Highway 281 North and Farm-to-Market Road 1821. The billboard space was donated in hopes it will generate good leads for law enforcement to help find the Gibtown woman missing since July 5. A North Carolina group, dedicated to helping find missing persons, is in town and plans to search for Townsend this weekend. Christin Coyne/Lone Star News Group photo

February 25, 2011

Efforts to generate new information, search for Shonda Townsend under way

Christin Coyne CNHI The Weatherford Democrat Fri Feb 25, 2011, 08:30 AM CST

Mineral Wells —

Missing since July 5, a billboard for Shonda Townsend was put up Wednesday morning as a missing persons organization prepares to head up a physical search for Townsend over the weekend.

Nineteen years old at the time of her disappearance, Townsend’s cell phone sent and received texts early July 5 traveling north towards the Perrin area until shortly after 12:30 a.m. She was last reported seen leaving her friends shortly after midnight at a house in western Mineral Wells.

She was believed to be on her way home to the Gibtown area.

Her car was found shortly after 5 a.m. the same morning parked in the 800 block of S.E. 3rd Avenue, ransacked with doors and the trunk found open.

Despite hundreds of hours chasing leads, questioning individuals and conducting searches, investigators have not been able to locate Townsend.

The CUE Center for Missing Persons out of Wilmington, N.C., arranged for a billboard to be put up just north of Mineral Wells city limits at U.S. Highway 281 North and Farm-to-Market Road 1821 facing northbound traffic.

The sign requests those with any information call the Jack County Sheriff’s Department, the Mineral Wells Police Department or the CUE Center and family members hope it brings attention to the case again. The space was donated and would normally cost $2,000 a month, according to Carolyn Rittenbury, the woman who raised Townsend.

See the printed version of The Weatherford Democrat for additional coverage.