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Detectives flying to interview missing mom's ex

Posted at 11:04 PM, Apr 29, 2016
and last updated 2016-04-29 23:46:20-04

After a massive coordinated search across Hobe Sound Thursday and Friday turned up no sign of Tricia Todd, the Martin County Sheriff's Office now says detectives will head to North Carolina where Tricia's ex-husband is stationed at an Air Force Base.

The Sheriff's office says he was the last person to see Tricia and detectives have more questions.

The Martin County Sheriff's Office says he is not being called a suspect or a person of interest, so NewsChannel 5 has chosen not to identify him by name.

"If at any point you come across something that you feel might be a crime scene immediately stop what you're doing," a volunteer search coordinator shouted out to a massive search party gathered near Tricia Todd's home on Friday afternoon.

"I'm hoping to find my daughter tonight," said Tricia's mother, Rebecca Hasselbach, before heading out with one of the search parties.

Hasselbach says something must have happened to Tricia because there's no way she would leave her two-year-old daughter behind.

"That child is just everything to her," Hasselbach said. She says she's been scrutinizing every detail of the last week trying to figure out what may have happened.

"The only thing different was that her ex-husband came and he doesn't usually come," Hasselbach said.

She says Tricia hadn't seen her ex-husband in months. However, the Todd family says last week he rented a small home in Hobe Sound so that he could see his daughter, Faith. In fact, Martin County Sheriff William Snyder says that is the last place Tricia was seen.

"Two in the morning Wednesday she was supposed to drive home, he said that he saw her leave," said Tricia's brother Nathan Todd. He says his sister drove to the house where her ex-husband was staying late Tuesday night after he called saying Faith was sick. The Martin County Sheriff confirms that the two took the little girl to the emergency room that night. Tricia's ex-husband told detectives that she left the house around two in the morning Wednesday.

"Nobody has seen or heard from her since," Nathan said.  It's the reason why Nathan says he went out with a group of volunteers searching through a swampy area near Orange Blossom Trail in Hobe Sound. It's just down the road from where his former brother-in-law was staying.

It's very difficult ground to cover as are many of the areas where teams are searching for Tricia across Hobe Sound. To try and coordinate efforts, searchers were asked to download a free app called "Map My Walk", then share the area searched on the "search for Tricia Williams Todd" Facebook page.

After two days of an exhaustive search everyone is just trying to stay positive.

"I'm doing my best just to ignore what could've happened and just praying and searching for her," Nathan said.

The Sheriff's office says detectives will be flying out to North Carolina to interview Tricia's ex-husband either Sunday or Monday. In the meantime a coordinated search for Tricia will continue through the weekend.