Joanna Brown missing Worcester, Massachusetts bakery worker is found dead days after telling her supervisor that she needed to leave work & take care of something.
What went wrong…? A much beloved ‘missing’ Worcester, Massachusetts woman was found dead in her SUV vehicle, days after she requested special permission to leave her baker job.
Joanna Brown, 30, was found dead in her Mitsubishi Outlander parked near Green Hill Towers apartments just on 4 p.m, Monday afternoon, Nov. 3, the Worcester Police Department said in a news release.
Brown was last seen on Friday, when she reportedly left her job at Bean Counter Bakery Cafe just on 9 a.m, due to an undisclosed personal matter.
How did beloved Worcester bakery worker end up dead?
At the time of her disappearance, police said there was a ‘heightened concern for her safety.’
The missing woman was described as being 5ft’6, 200 pounds with blonde hair and hazel eyes.
In an interview with WGGB, Worcester Police Officer Elise Miranda described Brown’s last interaction with her boss.
‘She left her shift, she told her supervisor that she needed to leave for some personal reason, that she had something that she needed to take care of.’
Miranda told the outlet. ‘Her manager asked if she needed Saturday off as well and Joanna said no. That she should be back for Saturday, but she did not report to work on Saturday.’
The lack of communication from the long time employee who had worked at the bakery for eight years set off alarm bells.
Why didn’t Worcester bakery worker fail to call in over the weekend?
‘What’s raising so many alarms for us is that Joanna has always reported to work, she’s never disappeared like this,’ the officer told WGGB. ‘She doesn’t have a history of just not showing up or not communicating with her family, so it’s very, very strange for her.’
A day after Brown was reported missing, her employer pleaded for information about her whereabouts on social media.
‘She has been greeting our customers with her smile for 8 years!’ the bakery said of Brown, a ‘valuable’ team member. ‘She has never just not show[n] up for her shift until Saturday.’
The circumstances surrounding Brown’s death are being investigated by the Worcester County District Attorney’s Office and Worcester police. Her cause and manner of death are pending. It remained unclear whether foul play is suspected in her death and when exactly Brown came to die.
Alice Lombardi the owner of the bakery where Brown worked, told CBS News that customers had come into the store and cried following news of the beloved worker’s disappearance.
‘We miss her terribly,’ Lombardi said. ‘She is the backbone of the business.’
Added the owner at the time, ‘We want her found and we want her back.’
Anyone with information about Brown or the case is asked to call 911 or (508) 799-8606.
Located in central Massachusetts, Worcester is the second-largest city in the state. It’s 51 miles west of Boston.
