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Worried Family Searches For Paterson Woman Missing Since 'Violent Altercation'

PATERSON, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- An army of relatives and friends are looking for the young single mom who disappeared from a parking area in a burst of violence.

The disappearance of Shanaya Coley has worried family and friends searching the streets of Paterson.

They told CBS2's Dave Carlin the 24-year-old dotes over her 3-year-old son Amir.

They also described her as a caring, hardworking staffer at an assisted living facility who had no enemies.

"I haven't slept, I've just been driving around hoping to see something, anything, hopefully her car," Coley's sister Vernadette Fields said.

Paterson police said it appears likely that Coley was abducted.

It was Tuesday night, around 11, and they believe the suspect used her car as a getaway vehicle.

The dark, 2013, Nissan Altima, had been parked in front of her apartment building on Colonial Avenue.

"I haven't broken down yet. I'm trying to hold up just as long as I can," her father Willie Coley said.

Coley said he doesn't have the heart to tell his grandson that his mother is missing.

Putting the clues together seems to paint a bleak scenario.

A neighbor called 911 to report witnessing a violent altercation.

Officers arrived to find blood and Coley's glasses on the ground.

It's unknown if she was targeted by someone she knew, or if it was random.

"If you wanted the car you could have left her where she was," Fields said. "Let her go if you have her. There's no reason, there's no reason for all this, all this heartache."

"Just get my daughter back in one piece," Coley added.

The father and sister are hoping that she is a Jane Doe in the hospital, perhaps unconscious and no one know who she is. Any scenario that brings her home to her son long before his 4th birthday at the end of the month.

 

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