(NewsNation) — Melissa Whitsitt, 34, went missing in mid-August and there’s not much known about her whereabouts after she took a bus from Winter Park to Denver.
Melissa Whitsitt, 34, was reported missing Aug. 13 when she didn’t show up to work at Winter Park Resort.
Whitsitt’s parents, Cindy and Jerry, drove to Colorado from West Tennessee when they realized that Denver only has two detectives in the missing persons department.
“We could not even get in the front door of the police department. … When we went combing the streets, we were alone doing that,” Cindy said on “Banfield.”
Her parents also also learned that an unknown man had used her phone and that he made multiple calls apparently asking for a ride. Her phone has since been turned off.
Her debit card has not been used since she disappeared.
“Like a needle in a haystack,” Cindy Whitsitt said in an interview with CBS News. “Some of the law enforcement have been very eager to help us but they are understandably outnumbered, there are literally two detectives in the department here in Denver and we found that unacceptable.”
In a separate case, 55-year-old Svetlana Ustimenko disappeared in the same county as Whitsitt a few weeks earlier. The search for Ustimenko began Aug. 11 in the Deadhorse Trailhead area of the Arapahoe National Forest.
On Aug. 22, authorities announced that the search for Ustimenko was suspended, according to a local Denver news station.
Authorities said the cases appeared to be isolated incidents with no threat to the community.
Anyone with information is asked to call Denver police at 720-913-2000 or the Grand County Sheriff’s Office at 970-725-3311.