“That little boy has always been by her side,” Jennifer Brown's best friend said.
After what authorities characterized as an extensive search on January 18, the body of a Pennsylvania mother who vanished this month was discovered partially buried. Jennifer Brown, 43, was found in Royersford, approximately 32 miles northwest of Philadelphia, revealed Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele. Uncertainty surrounds both her death's cause and method.
Authorities seemed to be looking through potential evidence behind a warehouse, according to aerial footage obtained by NBC Philadelphia. Steele remarked in a press conference, “I can’t tell you how many people have worked through this and helped, we hoped and prayed she would be safe, and she is not.”
Brown's remains will be transported to the coroner's office, where an autopsy will be performed. Prosecutors would not reveal if they suspect anybody at this point in her disappearance, per CBS News.
On January 3, at 2:00 p.m., Brown, the "devoted" mom from Limerick Township was last seen. She was scheduled to pick up her 8-year-old kid the following day from a bus stop but failed to do so. According to the prosecutor's office at the time, her car's keys, wallet, and smartphone were discovered inside the parked vehicle outside of her residence.
“Friends and family have not heard from her since that day,” Steele said Wednesday, describing Brown as a “devoted mother of an 8-year-old boy.” The DA further remarked, “By all accounts, she would have never left him unattended and unsupervised.”
The single mother was last seen by neighbors to be in good health before she vanished. One neighbor, Ellen Friend, spoke at a vigil organized for the missing mother. She claimed to have met the woman a day before she went missing. “She was driving by. I was in the parking lot talking to another neighbor in the car with my dog,” the friend said, adding, “We both waved hello, and I went inside.”
Jennifer Brown has been found deceased. She was a single mother. My heart is broken for her son. I want to know who did this. 💔 https://t.co/Tt6PUimll3
— Rose (@901Lulu) January 18, 2023
Antonio "Blair" Watts-Richardson, a friend of Brown, revealed to NBC Philadelphia last week that Brown was preparing to start a restaurant as well as struggling with stress related to her family and job. Watts-Richardson informed the station that he had been watching her son on the day she vanished. “I put Noah on the bus the next day,” Watts-Richardson said. The station reported that he never heard from her again.
“She is a doting, I call her, helicopter mom. She loves her son. She would never leave her son,” said Tiffany Barron, Brown’s best friend. Kathleen Cocca and Nancy Decker, two of Brown's neighbors, agree, adding to NBC10 that the mother and her son had an unshakable bond. “That little boy has always been by her side,” Cocca said. “She walks him to school. She picks him up from the bus. He’s never allowed to be on his own. Even when he comes out to play, she’s outside sitting on the chair.”
Barron is currently watching Brown’s 8-year-old son as the search for her continues. “He was just saying he wanted his mom,” Barron said. “He didn’t understand why he couldn’t go into his own home.”
References:
https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/missing-montgomery-county-mother-found-dead/3476335/
https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/jennifer-brown-missing-mother-limerick-township-airport/
Cover Image Source: Facebook | Montgomery County District Attorney's Office