Missing woman's family hopes for best amid deaths

GARY, Ind. - Relatives of a Gary woman missing since February are hoping for the best as they await word on whether she is one of the unidentified women whose bodies have been found in abandoned houses.

Fifty-two-year-old Sonya Billingsley was last seen Feb. 7. Her sister, Salethia Sims, tells The Times she was last seen leaving a relative's house not far from the buildings where some victims were found.

Police have charged Darren Vann, 43, with murder in the deaths of 19-year-old Afrikka Hardy and 35-year-old Anith Jones. Hardy's body was found Friday in a Hammond motel, and police say Vann told them where to find six other bodies in Gary.

Sims says Billingsley's family has contacted places she liked to frequent and has distributed missing-person fliers.