Search continues for Prescott Valley, Arizona woman who went missing weeks ago with her two dogs

“Part of the reason I'm trying so hard – apart from her family of course – to find her is that my father died a few years ago and he was his last living sibling ” said Cassandra Mullican. “I know my dad would cut down trees to find her, that’s who he was.”

Cassandra's aunt, Yvonne Mullican, 66, has been missing for weeks. Cassandra feels like she needs to help as much as she can, because that's what her father would have done if he had been there. “I definitely have to try to get it out there so people can see and get as much exposure as possible for him and for her,” she said.

Yvonne, who had her two dogs with her when she disappeared, was officially reported missing on April 4, 2024.

Dateline spoke with Lt. Jason Kaufman of the Prescott Valley Police Department, who oversees the department's Support Services Division and Public Information Office.

He confirmed that Yvonne had been reported missing by one of his daughters who lives in another state. “The last time she spoke to her mother was on Tuesday, April 2, 2024, on the phone,” he said.

Lt. Kaufman said authorities tried to contact Yvonne but were unable to find her. They entered his information into NCIC, the National Crime Information Center, which is an “index of missing persons and criminal information.” The lieutenant said they also issued a BOLO for his car, a 2012 Kia Sorrento.

“His car was found three weeks later,” his niece Cassandra said. “It’s silver and on the back there’s a sticker that says, ‘God be with you’.”

Cassandra described her aunt as gentle, but also as someone who was reserved. “My aunt always loved animals, so I couldn’t see her doing anything that would put her animals in a strange position,” she said. “When I was a kid, she had boa constrictors that she treated like house cats, you know what I mean? She really likes animals, so it's just weird that her dogs are with her – if she tried to disappear – that would be a very strange thing for her to do.

Cassandra said Yvonne was from Prescott Valley, Arizona, which is more than 50 miles from where her car was located. According to a missing person poster posted by the Coconino County Sheriff's Office on Facebook, Yvonne's vehicle was located “at State Route 260 (milepost 249) and Forest Road 144” and “may have been there for approximately 3 weeks before it is reported.”

Cassandra said the car was found “stalled” between the small town of Camp Verde and the communities of Strawberry and Pine. “There's nothing else to really, uh, identify the area very well,” she said.

Lt. Kaufman told Dateline that the Prescott Valley Police Department was notified by the Arizona Department of Public Safety of the location of Yvonne's car on May 1, 2024. “There was a note [on it], uh, that she had called the traffic services,” he said. “But she wasn't, uh, in the vehicle and [on the note] requested that the vehicle be towed to Chapman Auto Services in Payson.

“The Arizona Department of Public Safety detective advised us that officers would remain with the vehicle and treat it as if it were a crime scene,” Lt. Kaufman added.

“We all find it strange that his car is there,” said his niece Cassandra. She told Dateline that her family was familiar with the area, as they used to go there when she was younger.

“My dad would take us all out there, and we would explore and learn how to survive in the wild and things like that,” she said. “My family in particular knows this area like the back of our hand. So it would be very weird if she went out, like, I don't know, if she went there and didn't come back.

Cassandra described the area where Yvonne's car was found as desolate. “There are no commercial buildings here,” she said. “It’s a very wooded area. So it's really green, there are a lot of trees. There are a lot of cliffs and steep hills and things like that in the area. It is therefore not a very pedestrian area.

Lt. Kaufman said the Prescott Valley Police Department did not conduct the search near where Yvonne's car was found because that falls under the jurisdiction of the Coconino County Sheriff's Office . “The Coconino County sergeant said he would work to put together a — a team, specifically with — with a dog, uh, and bring — and bring the dog to the location where the vehicle was found,” a- he declared. said.

“On May 2, 2024, the Coconino County Sheriff went to the location of the car, uh, and attempted to identify a potential crime scene or search for evidence or search for a person or to search for a body,” said Lt. Kaufman said. “It looks like they didn’t find anything.”

“My cousins ​​had gone out and posted missing signs,” Cassandra said. “They started, sort of, posting them all over the little surrounding areas.” Cassandra described her aunt's research. “At first it was just kind of a foot search,” she said. “People are walking around, looking around, trying to find her and shouting her name, that kind of thing.”

“The only thing they found was his dog’s leashes, kind of away from the car in the woods,” Cassandra said. The dogs were nowhere to be found.

They completed another search last Friday, which revealed nothing new.

Cassandra told Dateline that there has been no activity on her aunt's accounts. “There is no money coming in or going out. His phone is turned off, all his social media accounts are gone,” she said. According to Cassandra, Yvonne's social security checks are still in her PO box. “It’s literally, like, just up and poof – gone.”

Lt. Kaufman told Dateline that the Prescott Valley Police Department received information from the family that Yvonne “canceled [her] phone service and cut off his email,” as well.

“She would have been of sound mind, an adult, uh, she had a valid driver's license,” Kaufman said. “And in America, we are free to go wherever we want. And if we don't want people to find us, for our own reasons, uh, sometimes people disappear.

Cassandra, who lives a few hours from her aunt, told Dateline she is doing everything she can to help from a distance. “I have personally called every mental health facility out there, every hospital, every hotel, every campground, everything I can contact, and no one has heard anything or seen anyone who looks like him,” she said.

Yvonne is approximately 5'4″ or 5'5″ tall and weighs between 160 and 180 pounds. She has shoulder-length brown hair and green eyes. She bears no distinctive marks or tattoos.

She was last thought to be wearing dark jeans, a purple shirt and a gray sweater.

“I thought it was probably the best thing I could do from home, uh, was at least show his face,” Cassandra told Dateline. “I just hope she's out there and she's OK and she sees that we're actively looking for her and that something inside her says, 'You know what? I need to talk to my family, I'm not alone.'

If you have any information on the disappearance of Yvonne Mullican, please contact the Prescott Valley Police Department at 928-772-9267 or Yavapai Silent Witness at 1-800-932-3232.