Valerie Elder Smiley, 41, was reported missing from her Chattanooga, Tennessee home after she was last seen leaving at about 2:00 p.m. on June 28, 2024. She was driving a red 2004 Ford Expedition with a TSU MOM sticker on the passenger door and Tennessee plate 079BFQD. Family last spoke with her by phone that afternoon; she said she was on her way home but never arrived and missed plans to attend her twin sons’ baseball game that evening.

In the days before she disappeared Valerie had started a new medication for vertigo and an ear infection; her family says it appeared to make her repeat herself, sleep more and have less energy, and they worry she may have become confused. Her phone later pinged in Fayetteville, Georgia, and the next day in Union City, Georgia, locations her family says are far outside her normal routes and where she had no known ties. She is described as Black, 5 feet 5 inches, 210 pounds, with black hair, brown eyes and a cursive Valerie tattoo on the outside of her right calf. The case is classified as endangered missing and remains unsolved.

If anyone has information about Valerie’s movements on or after June 28, 2024, or saw the vehicle with plate 079BFQD, please come forward.