A missing Augusta woman has been found safe and reunited with her two sisters.
Whitney Rivers, 34, was the subject of a desperate search by her sisters, Markita and Aaliyah Jones, who had last seen her around April 17.
Rivers turned up this week at the Sam’s Club on Bobby Jones Expressway after she was found nearby on Scott Nixon Memorial, according to Markita Jones. She was safe but had been badly assaulted.
“I am so supper happy,” Markita Jones said Wednesday by phone, crying. “To see my sister, I am just glad that she is OK.”
She said another woman found her and had trouble reaching her, but she eventually connected and put Whitney on the phone. When they went to get her at Sam’s Club, they found her sister’s face was badly bruised.
“She was running from these people that was harming her,” Markita said. “We never knew that.”
Whitney’s sisters had made their own missing persons flyers and posted them throughout town as well as searching and going door to door to find answers. They thought she might have been murdered when someone provided a video of witnesses saying that their sister was murdered, struck in the head with a steel bar.
“My sister has been through a lot. And we are just happy we don’t have to bury her,” Markita said.
The next step is trying to find the people who assaulted her and file criminal charges. Markita is also upset with the sheriff’s office, saying one of the investigators was nasty and provided little help. She is so upset with their handling, she said she wants to file an official complaint with Internal Affairs.
Whitney is now home with her sisters.
“She just wanted to take a bath and wanted to be around her sisters. She didn’t know we were trying to find her,” Markita said.
