Search for missing teen moves to Grand Bay

GRAND BAY, Ala. (WALA) - Stephanie Hanke is Brittney Wood’s stepmother. She described the 19-year-old as loving and spunky.

Woods has been missing since May 30 when she was supposed to be going to visit her uncle in the Styx River area. Now new evidence has sent the search for the missing teen to Grand Bay.

Meanwhile, Hanke is left with only memories of her stepdaughter and, in a time like this, she’s forced to cling to them.

“We all spent her daughter’s second birthday together, and it was just a great day with the baby eating the cupcake, and just everybody running around," Hanke said.  "It was just a great, loving family day.”

But that would be one of their last together. Searches have been going on since that day she disappeared.

She was thought to have been meeting with her uncle who lives near Styx River. But authorities found the man dead in an apparent suicide.

More than two weeks later, with Brittney still missing, things are taking a toll on her family.

“We’re taking it one day at a time," Hanke said.  "And until proven otherwise, we have to hope and pray and believe that Brittney is alive and safe. But it is taking an emotional, a spiritual strain on us, physically. Physically we’re exhausted. Financially, it’s draining us. Both households, our lives have stopped to hunt for Brittney.”

New evidence sent that hunt to Grand Bay. According to Hanke, police believe that’s where she was last seen.

Brittney’s family spent much of the day Saturday going door-to-door, talking to folks and handing out flyers. She said people have heard about the missing girl but no one has actually seen her.

Hanke says Brittney is not the type to run away, and she’d never leave her two-year-old daughter Payton like this.

But she’s holding out hope and she has a message for the one who has left a hole in her heart, and the hearts of all of her family.

“Just give us a call and let us know you’re okay, because we’re not going to stop until we find you. We love you, we miss you; your baby needs you," Hanke said.  "We’re not going to stop until we find you.”

Woods is described as 5'1" with dirty blond hair and blue eyes.

If you have any information on Wood's whereabouts, call Mobile Police at 251-208-1700.