What Happened to Emily Strite? Heartbreaking Update On Missing Mother

The search for a missing woman ended in tragedy on Tuesday after Missouri officials announced that her body had been found.
Emily Strite, 34, was first reported missing by her mother on April 20. She was last seen in the De Soto area on April 12.
“At this time, there is no indication of foul play in either her disappearance or her death. So, without a crime, there can’t be a suspect. That said, this is an ongoing investigation, and our office hopes to uncover the truth about Emily Strite’s case,” Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office Public Safety Information Coordinator Grant Bissell told Newsweek.
Deputies with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office responded to a report of human skeletal remains found in a wooded area by a property owner in De Soto on Saturday, according to a press release from the sheriff’s office.
The remains were taken to the Regional Medical Examiner’s Office and later identified as Strite using medical and dental records.
Strite’s cause of death has not been determined yet.
Investigators are also trying to determine how her body ended up in the location where it was found.
Strite’s mother, Charlyn McClain, told Dateline that her daughter had been staying with a friend in De Soto prior to her disappearance. Strite has four children ranging in age from three to 17. Her three youngest children live with their father. McClain said Strite told her she was going to see her children the last time they spoke.
“That was pretty routine,” McClain said. “So my assumption was, ‘Well, she’s at Steve’s now, and she’s staying there.'”
McClain said she received a call from the children’s father, Steve Fults, a week later. He reportedly asked if McClain had heard from her daughter and said Strite never told him that she was coming to visit the children.
Strite’s relationship with Fults ended in 2022, but the two remained in contact due to their shared children.
“He has never called me and questioned anything about Emily or to tell me anything about Emily,” McClain said. “That’s why I panicked when he called me because he had never done that before.”
Anyone with information is being asked to contact the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office Detective Bureau at 636-797-5515.
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