Who is Monica Bogart Lamping? Young Virginia Mother Disappears With Children After Blind Date

RTRCFCO — Virginia police issued a missing and endangered alert for Monica Bogart Lamping, 29, and her children — 7-year-old Kai and 9-month-old Oria — after her family said she stopped responding to their text messages and phone calls, Reuters

Virginia police were looking for a woman and her two children who vanished after the mother went on a blind date, according to family. Police issued a missing and endangered alert for the young mother, Monica Bogart Lamping, 29, and her children — 7-year-old Kai and 9-month-old Oria — after her family said she had stopped responding to their text messages and phone calls, according to officials, the Virginian-Pilot reported.

“She’s never been out of communication with all of us for this length of time,” Lamping’s mother, Sheila Bogart, told the newspaper.

Following Lamping’s disappearance, her home was destroyed by a fire early Sunday, according to officials. Her mother told ABC affiliate WVEC she learned of the fire because she was notified by the Virginia Beach Fire Department.

The fire department said the blaze, which was caused by a space heater, killed Lamping’s two pets, a dog and a cat. No one was home at the time of the fire, which occurred at 3 a.m.

The single mom reportedly dropped her children off at a friend’s home Saturday afternoon so that she could go on her date. Her family did not know the man, they only knew her partner’s first name: Chad, according to her son’s stepmother, Moira Lamping.

“Her best friend Ann did watch the kids last night for her to go on a date, with somebody named Chad,” [Moira]Lamping told WVEC. “She said something about car trouble and Chad could fix it.”

Lamping eventually picked up her children from her friend’s house around 5 p.m. Later that night, the two women were still in contact with one another via text, according to the Daily News.

She sent her last text to her friend around 10:30 p.m., according to reports.

Lamping drives a green 2002 Jeep Cherokee with a Virginia license plate reading XPU-6357, according to Virginia Beach Police. Anyone with information on the mysterious disappearance should call the department’s missing person detective at (757) 385-4101 or the Virginia Beach Police Emergency Communications at (757) 385-5000.