REDDICK, Fla. – The Marion County Sheriff's Office asked again for the public’s help this week in finding a young woman who disappeared in March. It urged people to send tips and noted that some citizens have conducted their own investigations.
Sara Gail Ebersole, 26, was reported missing March 8 by her roommate and last seen March 3 at a house in Reddick, where residents said the woman left in a blue sedan that might’ve been a Hyundai, Marion County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Valerie Strong said. According to the sheriff’s office, residents said the man driving the sedan was Hispanic, in his mid-30s, 5 feet, 8 inches tall and was an Uber driver.
Deputies later confirmed Ebersole had no history of ordering an Uber on March 3, but detectives are still determining whether an Uber driver from Gainesville provided an “off-the-books” ride, the sheriff’s office said.
“[The Sheriff's Office] is going to be investigating people that she could have gotten a ride from and whether or not that person was an Uber driver and was just doing her a favor,” Strong said.
On March 2, Ebersole was seen near a Circle K on U.S. Route 441, where Strong said she left in a black pickup truck with two men, one of whom lives at the home in Reddick.
The sheriff’s office said James Robinson lives at the subdivided home with James Schaller and Teesha McDermitt. The truck brought Ebersole and Robinson to the home where Ebersole stayed overnight and allegedly left in the sedan the next morning.
It is unclear whether Robinson owned or was driving the truck.
Strong said Ebersole’s family and employer said the woman is known to be gone for weeks at a time, but since March, she said, Ebersole’s pattern of life has come to a halt.
“She has stopped posting to social media. She has stopped going to work. Her accounts have not been used,” Strong said. “Everything that she would normally do even in the times that she did go disappear for those weeks has all stopped.”
Ebersole was last seen wearing a tan shirt with sequins or a black faded hoodie with a logo of a hockey goalie and the words “Goalie Academy” on the front when she disappeared.
Anyone with information regarding Ebersole’s disappearance or location is encouraged to report it to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.
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