NEWSOMS

On Thursday morning, volunteers from the Franklin/Southampton area and as far away as Norfolk and Newport News gathered at Mount Tabor Baptist Church to help search for the Newsoms woman who was reported missing last week.

As previously reported in The Tidewater News, Cynthia Carver, 34, of Everett Street, was reported missing on Friday, Feb. 22, after her mother, Ann, called the Southampton County Sheriff’s Office and expressed concerns about her daughter’s welfare. According to department spokesman Maj. Gene Drewery, the deputies who were dispatched to Carver’s residence discovered blood at the scene, secured the residence and obtained a warrant for a detailed search. Carver was reportedly last seen on Thomaston Road in Newsoms on Thursday, Feb. 21 around 9 p.m.

Coordinating the volunteer search effort is Mount Tabor’s pastor, Jeremiah Cole, along with Pastor Kendrick Turner of the Norfolk-based organization Freedom Civil Rights; Terry Riddick, president of the Newport News-based Best Kept Secret – Stop the Violence Organization; and the Southampton County Sheriff’s Office.

“We need more volunteers,” Turner said, explaining that he and the others plan to resume their search on Friday at 9:30 a.m.

By about 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, said Turner, the volunteers had searched all over the town of Newsoms. Some, he added, had also looked in Boykins and near the North Carolina-Virginia border, from which Newsoms is only about five miles away.

In addition to helping search for Carver, Cole has also been spending time with Carver’s mother, sister, brother and children since he learned of her disappearance on Friday. Mount Tabor is the family’s church, he added.

“They’re holding up pretty strong,” Cole said.

Those interested in volunteering to search on Friday for Carver and/or any clues to her whereabouts are asked to call Turner at 912-8081. Cole added that the church would hold a prayer service for Carver at 7 p.m. tonight (Thursday).