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Search continues for missing Florissant woman, last seen Nov. 2017

Barb Hoener Higgins has been missing since November 5, 2017.

FLORISSANT, Mo. – The search continues for a missing Florissant woman.

Barb Hoener Higgins has been missing since November 5, 2017.

Her family shared this message on Facebook,

Today marks four months since anyone has seen or talked to our sister, Barb Higgins. Since Nov. 5, Barb and her car have been missing. Our family has searched for her from Elsberry to Alton along the Mississippi river. We have searched by land and by air. With the help of Team Watters Sonar Search and Recovery (a non-profit search and recovery group) a search of the waters along that stretch has been done. Team Watters even searched the water along a stretch of the Missouri River, checking out ramps from Columbia Bottoms to St. Charles.

Early in the process the family checked out parking lots and parking garages. In recent weeks we looked into storage units as a possibility to find her. With every place that we search we eliminate a place that she or her car is.

Even though we have yet to find any additional clues to her location, we continue to search. Our family appreciates the thoughts and prayers from friends and family. We welcome any ideas or thoughts about additional places to investigate.

"One of the great stories that she loves to tell is that she never got anything new," said Douglas Hoener, Barb's sister. "She got all the hand-me-downs."

Barb Hoener is the youngest of five siblings. She grew up in Berkeley and went to Berkeley High School. She eventually settled down in the Florissant area. But, on the morning of Nov. 6, no one could reach her.

“A lot of concern because it's not like her to just go off by herself without talking to people,” said her older brother Doug Hoener.

Barb was not answering her phone and hasn't shown up to work. When Doug eventually got a key to her house, there were a couple of things left on Barb’s living room table, a cell phone, a life insurance policy and a release for dental records. Doug said these items were concerning.

“Assuming that she left on her own, that she left the cell phone so she couldn’t be traced,” said Doug.

Doug and his siblings hired the non-profit organization, Team Watter Sonar Search and Recovery to try to locate their sister by boat. And they contracted with someone to fly them over areas of interest.

"It's really difficult because…it's kind of like running into the end of the road,” Doug explained. “We don't really have any new places to look at this point. We have some areas that we might like to revisit along the river and search that way,” he said.

The one thing that could be most helpful to this case has not been found, Barb’s champagne-colored 2014 Honda Accord, with a Missouri license plate DB9-T8A.

Barb’s family is sticking to what they know, the water and the outdoors, both of which Barb loved. They’re open to suggestions about what else they might do or where else they could expand their search.

“Nothing is considered far-fetched anymore, anything is within the realm of possibilities,” Hoener said.

Anyone with information should contact the Florissant Police Department at 314-831-7000.

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