In the small city of Moberly, Missouri, Penny Sue Warfel, a 56-year-old woman, was last contacted on September 15, 2017, just one day before she would have celebrated her fifty-seventh birthday. A Caucasian female with blonde hair and blue eyes, standing five feet two inches tall and weighing around 120 pounds, her sudden lack of communication was out of character for someone who regularly kept in touch with her family.
Her husband, Lawrence Warfel, informed her family that she had departed for Florida following an argument between them. However, there was no confirmation that she ever made it out of Missouri, and the silence that followed her last known contact was deeply concerning to those who knew her. Despite these troubling circumstances, an official missing person report was not filed with law enforcement until June of 2018, a full nine months after she was last heard from.
The investigation into Penny's disappearance soon uncovered suspicious financial activity. Before she went missing, Penny had been receiving monthly Social Security benefits that were directly deposited into her bank account. Investigators discovered that after her disappearance, these funds were regularly being withdrawn from an ATM. Surveillance footage from the bank's machine clearly showed her husband, Lawrence, using her debit card to take out the money. When confronted by authorities in September 2018, Lawrence admitted to using his missing wife's debit card to withdraw her Social Security benefits. This admission led to legal consequences for him, separate from the ongoing investigation into Penny's whereabouts.
Ultimately, Lawrence Warfel faced federal charges for his actions. In October 2019, he pleaded guilty to aggravated identity theft. In January 2020, he was sentenced to 24 months in prison for the crime and was also ordered to pay restitution amounting to $11,688.11. While there was a resolution to the financial exploitation that occurred after her disappearance, the central mystery of the case remains. The investigation into what happened to Penny Warfel was handled by the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office and the Social Security Administration. To this day, few details about the circumstances surrounding her disappearance have been made public, and her case remains unsolved, leaving her loved ones without answers.Last Seen: Sep 15, 2017
