28-year-old Lindsey Schobelock has been missing since Wednesday, February 23, 2022 from Chillicothe, Ohio. “We are just confused and just feeling helpless,” Lindsey’s stepmother Suellen Schobelock told Dateline. “Helpless is pretty much the word of the day around here.”
Suellen has been Lindsey’s stepmother since she was about 4 years old. Suellen and Jon Schobelock were both single parents when they got married and with Suellen’s daughter, Allie, and Jon’s children, Jeff and Lindsey, they made a family of five. “Before Suellen came into our lives, it was just Jeffrey and Lindsey and me,” Jon said. “I was young, I was new at it, but I would never trade that – because of the relationship I got to have with those two.”
Lindsey has been drawing, sketching, and taking art classes all her life. “Lindsey is very creative,” Suellen said. “She has worked and been an apprentice in a tattoo shop here in town called the Iron Pen and she has flourished. Her art is -- is just amazing.”
Lindsey is the mother of two young boys – one is 7 years old, the other only 2. “She loves them and has, you know, done a lot for them,” Suellen told Dateline. Lindsey is not married to either father, but has an amicable relationship with both of them, according to Suellen. “She’s just in a good situation, family-wise,” she added, saying Lindsey has a lot of support from her family and friends.
The Schobelocks are worried for their daughter, especially since Lindsey has dealt with some mental health battles in the past. “She is normally a happy– happy person, but she does go through bouts of depression,” Suellen said.
“She loved her friends, she loved having a good time,” Suellen said. “She’s very flower child, like very hippie. But also at the same time, she could be very fashionista and just -- I mean, she’s always stunning.”
“She’s beautiful and artistic and loving and she's an old spirit,” Jon told Dateline. “She probably should have been born in the late 50s. So that in the late 60s she would have been coming into her teenage years and experiencing all that. That’s the kind of free, poetic, artistic spirit she is, she would have fit in well in 1968.”
Jon told Dateline that the last time he talked to Lindsey was via text on Monday, February 21. He says her texts seemed a bit unusual and didn’t really sound like her.
The day Lindsey went missing -- Wednesday, February 23 -- she had gone to work at the Iron Pen, where Suellen said she usually works until around 6:00 or 6:30 p.m. Suellen usually watches Lindsey’s youngest son on Wednesdays and Thursdays while the older boy is at school. She said Lindsey would always let her know if an appointment was running late and she wouldn’t be able to pick him up on time.
“I talked to one of her coworkers and her coworkers said she got up very abruptly after she was on the phone – she didn't know if it was a text or a call – she just got up very abruptly and left,” Suellen told Dateline. Lindsey reportedly left work that Wednesday, February 23 between 4 and 5 p.m., which is earlier than usual. “You know, she said that was very abnormal for -- for Lindsey,” Suellen said. “Lindsey would always tell everybody goodbye and, you know, check in with everybody to make sure. ‘You need anything before I leave?’ You know, ‘Can I help you?’”
But Lindsey didn’t do that the day she was last seen. Suellen said this raised a flag for the other employees at the tattoo shop.
After leaving the shop, Lindsey apparently went to an ATM where she withdrew some cash. Suellen told Dateline there is footage of Lindsey at the ATM. “That would have been shortly after she left work,” Suellen said. “That is the last video, at this point.”
The next day -- Thursday, February 24, 2022 -- Lindsey’s red Honda HRV sports car was found on Windy Ridge Road, about 30 minutes away from where the Schobelocks live. Suellen said that their family doesn’t typically take that road and that no one they know is really familiar with the area. “It’s pretty much a road out in the rural areas and you don't really go on it unless you need to be on it,” Suellen said.
Suellen told Dateline that Lindsey’s keys were found in the area near her vehicle. As for everything else, Suellen said that it had all been left at Lindsey’s home. “She left her license, she left her purse, phone, iPad, home computer. We don't know if she packed a bag,” Suellen said. “Everything was relatively, you know, her house was neat. It didn't look like there was any quick packing done.”
Not much else is known at this point. “There's still a lot of holes,” Suellen said. “We know she left work. We know she went to the ATM machine. We know she left all her electronics at home.”
Suellen told Dateline they learned Lindsey was missing on February 24 when the sheriff stopped by the Schobelock home, where Lindsey grew up. “At 3:00 the sheriff was pounding on our door and asked, you know, if we knew her and, you know, he just said, ‘Well, we -- we found her car and we have not found her.’”
The search for Lindsey began almost immediately. Suellen said they started calling her work, her friends, the fathers of her children, Lindsey’s siblings. “Just anybody who had maybe even talked to her just within the past couple of days leading up to that Thursday,” Suellen said. “And nobody -- nobody had anything, you know, really nothing that would indicate that she was either planning on taking off or meeting someone.”
Suellen said it’s unlike Lindsey to just leave without saying anything. “She’s never taken off with no notice,” Suellen said. In addition to her young sons, Lindsey also has two dogs and a cat that she cared for. Suellen said that the pets are currently being fostered by people they know “so that we can check on them,” and that she and her husband Jon “can’t thank the people enough.”
The Schobelocks say they are very grateful for the immediate action in the search for Lindsey. “We got the pictures to the sheriff’s [office] – they worked very quickly and very thoroughly,” Suellen said. “I just felt very blessed that they were helping us. Her missing flyer went on Facebook within two hours.”
The Ross County Sheriff’s Office shared a post on Facebook that Thursday afternoon, with a note from Sheriff George W. Lavender Jr. that confirmed the details Suellen shared with Dateline, “My office is attempting to locate 28 year old Lindsey Schobelock. Ms. Schobelock was last seen last night in Chillicothe, however her car was located on Windy Ridge Road in Huntington Township,” the note read in part.
Dateline reached out to the Ross County Sheriff’s Office for any updates on the case but had not heard back as of Monday.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost also posted about Lindsey’s disappearance. “Help locate Lindsey Schobelock,” the post started. “She was last seen in Chillicothe, on Feb. 23. Law enforcement is concerned for her safety.”
Suellen told Dateline the search for Lindsey has been pretty extensive, especially in the area where her car was found.
Jon agreed. “It actually started Thursday night and it was a group of about a dozen and they were all-- the more local team affiliated with the Sheriff's office, I believe,” Jon said. “And they were out in terrible weather conditions, it was dark, it was raining. They managed to round up a couple of dogs and have them out there. So they did the best immediate thing they could. And they were amazing.”
The next day, Friday, February 25, the search continued. “There were 12 teams of volunteers and -- and fire department volunteers, and township department -- and they had six dogs,” Suellen detailed. “They had a gentleman come in from Cincinnati who was a professional drone flyer and he does search and rescue missions.”
Suellen wasn’t exactly sure how much land was searched, but “I think they got over eight acres of land covered and nothing – nothing,” she said. “No dog really hit on anything except where her car was.”
The Schobelocks wanted to emphasize how thankful they are. “I tried to thank them that that day,” Jon said. “I did the best I could-- honestly, I couldn't get the words out.”
The Schobelocks have theories about what may have happened, like maybe someone picked Lindsey up. “We have no proof. We’re really working with just theories,” Suellen said. “They just very strongly believe she's not in the woods, you know, that -- that they feel pretty conclusive that she's not in those woods.”
Jon said he’s holding on hope that Lindsey is out there somewhere. “I'm still hanging my hat on the two things. On the fact that she got money first she wouldn't need if she were gonna hurt herself,” Jon said. “And number two, there was no trail into the woods. There was nothing for the dogs to follow. There was nothing found by the drone or the airplane. So she got into another vehicle and left. Those are the things I'm holding onto.”
The Schobelocks say they have been worried about Lindsey for a little while now. “There's just some health -- there's health concerns,” Suellen said.
Lindsey had apparently had been pretty distant from her friends recently. “Her sister and her very best friend – the three of them are very close – and they've both been like, ‘She's, you know, she's alienating herself a little bit,’” Suellen said.
Jon told Dateline the same thing, “She had somewhat withdrawn from friends,” he said. “And -- and just wasn't her -- her normal happy self in the last -- in the last days we were in contact with her.”
In January of 2022, Suellen said that Lindsey had checked herself into a hospital. “She was feeling not clear-headed and like she just needed a little bit of help and, you know, so we were all very supportive of that.”
But the Schobelocks are unsure if the hospital was able to help Lindsey. “There had been a couple days of evaluation,” Jon told Dateline, but “they didn't find any reason to keep her.”
According to the Schobelocks, Lindsey may have a small connection to New Orleans. “She had told two of her friends in the past month or so, ‘If I ever had a chance to start over-- a reason to start over, I think I'd like New Orleans,’” Jon told Dateline. “And -- and that was the only lead we had.”
So, just in case, Lindsey’s friends sent flyers to some tattoo parlors in New Orleans, in the hope that someone might recognize her, if that’s, in fact, where she went. Suellen said that a lot of the tattoo shops replied saying they’d keep an eye out for Lindsey.
Jon also told Dateline that if Lindsey were going by a different name, she would likely use the names “Indi” or “Josie.” Lindsey used the name “Indi Art” at the tattoo shop where she worked. When Lindsey was around 5 years old, Jon told her that Josie was a name they considered naming her before settling on Lindsey. Jon said she liked it so much she would sometimes use Josie as a nickname.
“We have tried some different avenues and short of jumping on an airplane and being there, you know, during that time and searching for her – I feel like we've done just about everything and the only reason we really haven't done that is –- it was during Mardi Gras,” Suellen said, feeling that with the influx of people in New Orleans for Mardi Gras, they’d likely not run into Lindsey.
The Schobelocks don’t know what Lindsey was last seen wearing but told Dateline that she is 5’7” and weighs around 135 lbs. She has blue eyes and currently has blonde hair, but she has dyed her hair brown before. Lindsey also has several tattoos on her arm, clavicle, and legs.
“Everyone in her life that I -- you know, that I know of, is absolutely worried,” Suellen told Dateline, especially her father, Jon. “Her father and I both just -- we’re beside ourselves,” Suellen said. “All of her family is because, I mean, no one thinks about that this is going to happen and -- and then it does. And you know, just any little bit of information would be, you know, well received.”
If you have information that can help locate Lindsey Schobelock, please contact the Ross County Sheriff’s Office at 740-773-1185.