Monica Lamping with her children: Oria, left, and Kai. (City of Virginia Beach)
Investigators have issued a missing and endangered alert for a young mother and her two children who disappeared after she went on a blind date, according to relatives.
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Monica Lamping, 29, was last heard from around midnight Sunday and was traveling in a 2002 Jeep Cherokee with her two children, 9-month-old Oria and Kai, 7. Investigators from the Virginia Beach Police Department issued the alert due to the “suspicious circumstances” surrounding the extended period of time since Lamping has been seen by friends and family and the fire that destroyed her home over the weekend.
“Obviously, it’s been quite some time since anyone’s been in contact with her,” Virginia Beach Police Officer Linda Kuehn told The Post. “There’s been nothing confirmed whether or not the fire is even relevant to this, but that’s all part of the investigation.”
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Lamping’s mother, Sheila Bogart, said she received a call from the Virginia Beach Fire Department early Sunday informing her that her daughter’s home was destroyed by a fire that investigators said was caused by a space heater, according to WVEC.com. No one was home at the time, but two pets were killed in the blaze.
Bogart said she initially thought her daughter and her two children had stayed at a friend’s house Saturday, but the friend confirmed that Lamping had picked them up and was heading home. Lamping and the friend traded text messages until 10:30 p.m. Saturday.
“And then at that point, we don’t know what happened after that,” Bogart told WVEC.com.
Moira Lamping, Kai Lamping’s stepmother, told WVEC.com that Monica’s friend watched her children so she could go on a blind date with a man named Chad.
“She picked the kids back up around 5:30 [Saturday],” Moira Lamping said. “She said something about car trouble and Chad could fix it.”
Moira Lamping said Monica later canceled a babysitting job and has not been heard from since.
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