UPDATE | The body of 24-year-old Maranda Witten was discovered early Monday morning, Troup County Sheriff's office said.
ATLANTA -- Troup County sheriff's deputies and volunteers spent the day scouring the banks of West Point Lake Sunday searching for 24-year-old Maranda Whitten.
The recent Auburn graduate was last seen in her blue kayak Friday night -- which has since washed ashore.
11Alive spoke with Whitten's mother who said none of it adds up.
“I was really tore up yesterday but I’ve got to believe that,” her mom said.
Whitten went missing after a family camping trip at Shaefer Heard Park in Troup County. Her mom said she still lives in Auburn, Alabama but was home with her grandmother on the trip in the past week. She went kayaking on West Point Lake and someone reported seeing her around noon on Friday.
Her kayak was found 2 hours later in the middle of the lake, the paddle, and life jacket still inside the boat. Searchers found her phone during a search but it wasn’t charged.
Family, friends, volunteers, and strangers have spent the last couple of days searching for her. They’ve printed out flyers that they’ve put out at local gas stations and they want to go up and down the interstate and put up more flyers. What they are trying to figure out right now is if she is out there somewhere or if she wandered off.
Police say there was a storm at the time she would have been kayaking. No one reported seeing her get out of the boat.
Her heartbroken mother’s head is spinning with possibilities. Did something happen to Maranda in the water?
“My daughter is a good swimmer,” she said. “She’s kayaked all her life.”
Did she take a hike and get lost?
“She may be confused,” her mom said.
Did someone harm her?
“That’s all we want to know is if she’s alive,” she added.
Or did she purposefully disappear?
“She was upset with me over some family issues,” mom admitted.
Whatever happened to Maranda, right now, remains a mystery. There’s been no sign of her even with two days of searches by boat, land, and air. This mom just hopes her daughter comes home.
“Maranada, we love you, please let us know you’re OK,” she said.
Her mom said that if she did leave on purpose, she might be headed to Atlanta and possibly going by her nickname, Randi.
A chief with the Troup County Sheriff’s Office said they’ll continue ground and water searches Monday hoping to find her. Law enforcement said they have no clue what happened to this young woman.
