Missing Tioga County woman identified eight months after her remains were discovered

WESTFIELD, Pa. (WETM) — A missing Westfield woman has been identified months after searchers located her vehicle and remains nearby.

According to an obituary from Kenyon Funeral Home, Phyllis C. Potter, 85, was found in Westfield, Pennsylvania on October 29, 2023.

Potter was born in Westfield on February 8, 1938. She was married for 59 years to her husband Benjamin Potter and enjoyed playing cards, doing word searches, chatting with friends and family, and always had a bag of snacks on hand when people came by her house.

Private services will be held at the convenience of the family before she is buried with her husband at Champlin Cemetery.

In the obituary, the family thanked everyone involved in the search for Potter over the months, from searchers to firefighters, churches and the Pennsylvania State Police.

According to previous reports, Potter was reported missing in July 2023, after she was last seen on camera at a gas station in Harrison Valley on July 20 before heading to a friend's house. She reportedly left her friend's house early on July 21 in her car, but was never seen again.

Thousands of people banded together to travel hundreds of miles in search of Potter. The groups met weekly at a local church, then set out to search roads, trails, waterways and other areas for any trace of Potter or his white Subaru Outback.

The months passed and summer turned to fall and as the leaves changed and fell from the trees, the brushy areas became much easier to search. On October 28, 2023, a driver spotted something glowing in the brush while driving on North Fork Road. After a few days of seeing it glow, they finally went to see what it was and located a white Subaru Outback just off the road.

The police were contacted and the car was searched and no body was found, but 50 metres away were human remains.

At the time, the remains were sent to Lehigh Valley Medical Center for autopsy.