Mother, friends launch search for missing Tarentum area woman

Friends and family of a Tarentum area woman who has been missing for three weeks went out looking for her Saturday.

Tonya Lynn Sadecky, 43, was last seen in the area of Ninth Avenue and Morgan Street in Brackenridge on Aug. 28, according to police. She has not been seen or heard from since.

Sadecky’s mother, Carol Richardson, was joined by several of Sadecky’s friends when they met up at the park-and-ride lot under the Tarentum Bridge around noon Saturday. They made their way to Brackenridge to start looking about an hour later.

Since news of her daughter’s disappearance went out, Richardson said she has received calls and text messages from people claiming to know where she is, or that they have her, and she’d have to pay to get her back.

She said police have told her they are scams.

Richardson has no guess or theory as to where her daughter is. She doesn’t believe she ran off.

No matter how mad she might be with her, Richardson said her daughter would always answer her calls. She used Facebook every day.

“Where’s her phone? Her phone was her best friend,” Richardson said.

Kayla Bopp, a former Tarentum resident, came to the area from her home in Michigan on Thursday to lead the search. She returns home Monday.

“I’ve been doing all of this from Michigan, keeping her name out there,” she said.

Saying she’s known Sadecky for years, Bopp said they’ve stayed in touch since she moved out of state two years ago. Bopp said she’s had no contact with Sadecky since Aug. 28.

“She spoke to me every day,” Bopp said. “She would not have me frantic like this.”

Before Saturday, Bopp said she went to the area in Brackenridge where Sadecky was last reported seen, and searched along the Allegheny River on Friday.

“Everywhere you could walk, I was,” Bopp said.

Richardson said her daughter might have gone out of touch a day or two, but would always contact her son, who is 21 and lives in Virginia. He has also heard nothing from her, Richardson said.

Sadecky has a 9-year-old daughter, who lives with the girl’s father.

Sadecky has no permanent address and no car. Unless she gets a ride, Richardson said they believe she would be in the Tarentum, Brackenridge and Harrison area.

Tarentum police Chief William Vakulick did not respond to a request for comment Saturday.

Anyone with information about Sadecky’s whereabouts is asked to call Bopp at 734-450-9010.