Virginia mother and her three children have mysteriously vanished in 'complex' case

A mother and her three children have reportedly gone missing from Virginia. The four have apparently not been heard from in almost two weeks.

Lauren Cook, 30, her 7-year-old son, 2-year-old son, and 5-year-old daughter seemingly vanished without explanation. They were supposed to arrive at a family member's home, but that never happened, according to the Independent.

The four were last heard from on September 5 in Franklin County, but efforts to regain communication with them have been unsuccessful. The report noted that the investigation is an unusual one, as there appear to be no signs of why Cook would have disappeared with her children.

Cook is married and lives with her husband, both of whom have full custody of their children. And there are no records indicating emergency calls that could explain any domestic disputes.

Sergeant Megan Huston, Franklin County Sheriff's Office public information officer, said: “A lot of times you see these situations where a parent loses custody and takes the kids and runs away. This doesn’t seem to be like that."

“But they’re not originally from here, so I can’t say if something has or has not happened elsewhere, I’m not privy to that information,” Huston said. “It’s a complex situation that we have limited details on.”

Concerning Cook's husband, Huston said that he's "upset, as any parent would be of 'where are my children at?'"

Officials suggested that Cook could have been in New York at one point, but then they said she could still be in Virginia. The authorities are currently unsure of where the four could be, per the report.

"Any time anything involves children, they want to make sure the children are safe," Huston said. "We have gotten an outpouring of support for trying to locate this family, and we would appreciate any additional shares of any news media coverage on this so that we can locate Lauren and her children."

While the authorities do not know the exact whereabouts of Cook, they said a clue in the investigation has to do with her mobile phone, which was last pinged in Lexington, Virginia, on September 7. The report noted that there has been no activity in her bank account.

Cook and her three children could be traveling in a blue 2013 Chrysler van with Virginia license plates.

The New York Post reported that because there was a delay in kicking off the search for the four missing people, it is unclear when they were last seen.

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