By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

A DESPERATE search is underway for a seven-month pregnant mother-of-two who vanished after leaving work early on Sunday to meet someone - and never returned home.

Thirty-year-old Lauren Saunders’s abandoned jeep was later found off Coral Harbour Road with a flat tyre, her purse and shoes inside.

Her family fears the worst.

Ms Saunders’ sister, Charmaine Edgecombe, said relatives believe she left to meet the man thought to be the father of her unborn child. He is believed to be married.

“She said ‘Okay she’s going to keep the baby’. You know, she’s not a baby killer, so she kept the baby.”

The family grew alarmed when Ms Saunders failed to show up for a function at Atlantis and could not be reached by phone. “I say this ain’t like her, something wasn’t sitting right with me,” Ms Edgecombe said.

They checked every hospital ward before filing a police report. Soon after, another sister retraced Ms Saunders’ usual route to work and made a chilling discovery.

“They drive up and they saw the jeep next to the road, and then they call the police and they did a further investigation, but they didn’t actually say if they find some or whatever they find. All know was the jeep was there and the front tire was flat,” Ms Edgecombe said. “They find the vehicle, they say, I think they said the purse was in it and on a shoes.”

When The Tribune visited the scene yesterday, police officers were combing thick bushes off a track near Coral Harbour Road, expanding their search along other tracks off Gladstone Road.

After police left, relatives pressed on through the night, frustrated by what they described as a slow response.

“We still didn’t really [get] no word we actually want to hear, you know, either they find her or any motives or certain things,” Ms Edgecombe said.

“They said they can’t discuss certain things with us until they finish further the investigations.”

Ms Saunders’ seven and nine-year-old children are heartbroken.

“Their grandfather,” Ms Edgecombe said, is “not coping too good”. “He’s frustrated. He is acting out, lashing out, and he is crying every little two seconds,” she said.

Ms Edgecombe admitted she is struggling too. “Me trying to go to work to get my mind off and every time I reach to work I just break down,” she said. “It ain’t easy. I can’t focus.”

The disappearance comes four years after the death of Ms Saunders’ mother. She had not

yet held a baby shower or chosen a name for her unborn son.

Ms Edgecombe said Ms Saunders had recently found love again. “Ain’t nothing he wouldn’t do for her,” she said of the man.

“Every time I see her, I see him. They just love one another. Who would find somebody who is actually pregnant for someone else and fall in love with her?”

Her sister described her as a “sweetheart” who was in high spirits before she

vanished. Police have not confirmed reports that the father of Ms Saunders’ unborn child has been questioned.