April 12, 2024 was the last time Charlyn McClain spoke to her daughter, 33-year-old Emily Strite.

“It was in the morning,” Charlyn told Dateline. “And we just talked for about a minute and she said, ‘I’m going to visit my kids.'” Charlyn says Emily was staying with a friend in De Soto, Missouri, about a 30-minute drive south of where Charlyn lives. Three of Emily’s four children live with their father, Steve Fults, across the Missouri border in Cahokia, Illinois. According to Charlyn, when Emily visited the children, Steve would either pick her up himself or send someone to pick her up. “It was pretty routine,” Charlyn told Dateline. “So my assumption was, ‘Well, she’s with Steve now and she’s staying there.'”

A week later, on the evening of April 19, 2024, Charlyn received an alarming call. “Steve called me and said to me, ‘Have you heard from your daughter? It’s been over a week now and I haven’t seen or heard from your daughter,” she said. Charlyn immediately became worried. “He never called me and asked me anything about Emily or told me anything about Emily,” she explained. “That’s why I panicked when he called me because he’d never done this before.”

Dateline spoke with Steve Fults via text message. He says he last saw Emily “at the end of March or beginning of April (sic)” and didn’t know Emily had plans to visit the children. “I didn’t know Emily (sic) wanted to see her kids on April 12th because she didn’t call me!” he wrote. He confirmed calling Charlyn when he hadn’t heard from Emily in a while. Steve says his relationship with Emily ended in 2022, “so we had no relationship other than children together.” He described Emily as a “strong, brave woman and great mother.”

On April 20, 2024, the day after Steve’s call, Charlyn filed a missing person report with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.

On September 20, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office Public Safety Information Officer Grant Bissell provided a statement to Dateline regarding Emily Strite’s case. “Emily Strite was reported missing by her mother on April 20, 2024. Since Emily’s mother resides in the jurisdiction of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, our deputies were dispatched there and completed the missing person report.”

During the investigation, it was determined that Emily was “last seen in a Jefferson County community, specifically a residence in the 900 block of 4th Street” in De Soto, Missouri, the report continued. According to Emily’s mother, this is the same block where Emily had recently lived. Dateline made several attempts to contact the person Emily was staying with at the time but were unsuccessful.

According to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, “video evidence was seized from multiple locations” in determining a timeline for Emily’s disappearance. Bissell told Dateline authorities that they had obtained a video from a Waffle House in St. Louis County that “appeared to show Emily” who “did not appear to be in distress.” The ministry did not specify the date Emily was seen at the Waffle House, but according to Charlyn it was around midnight on April 11 – the night before she last spoke to her daughter. Bissell told Dateline, “Other videos were also seized, although the individuals depicted in the video are more unclear and remain part of the investigation.”

The searches were conducted by law enforcement as well as Emily’s friends and family. Investigators “conducted area searches, seized evidence, conducted interviews, revisited locations, collaborated with other law enforcement agencies and search parties, and used both traditional and social media to raise awareness,” Bissell wrote.

Bissell told Dateline his department “conducted numerous interviews with Emily’s family, close friends and co-workers; In several cases, individuals were interviewed multiple times.” They did not provide information about who was interviewed.

On October 1, after a five-month search, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office made an announcement. “On September 28, deputies responded to a wooded area near the 4100 block of Frissell Road in De Soto due to the discovery of human skeletal remains by the property owner,” the statement said. “By comparing medical and dental records, investigators with the Regional Medical Examiner’s Office determined the remains were those of Emily Strite.”

The sheriff’s office statement said Emily’s “cause of death remains undetermined and investigators are working to determine how her body ended up where it was found.” In response to Dateline, Officer Bissell stated that there are “no suspects or “There are persons of interest in Emily’s disappearance as there is currently nothing to indicate that a crime has been committed or that a crime has been committed.”

Emily’s friends and family continue to desperately search for answers. And while they originally wanted to find her, now they want to find out what happened to her.

Dateline spoke with two of Emily’s close friends, Christi and Amanda Bauman, as well as Emily’s younger sister Jess Strite, who shed light on what kind of person Emily was.

“She was the person who gave the shirt off her back to those she loved, down to the last dollar when they needed it,” Christi told Dateline.

“I have always loved and cared for Emily. And when she first went missing, it was just sad.

“That shouldn’t have happened,” Amanda said. “She never deserved to just disappear into thin air.”

“I think I once described them as fireworks,” Jess said. “They’re just absolutely beautiful, shiny, big, living things.”

Charlyn McClain echoed those sentiments about her daughter. “Emily was, so to speak, the happiest person. The most caring person,” she said.

Anyone with information about what happened to Emily Strite is asked to call the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office at (636) 797-5000.