News Nearby: Search Continues For Missing Canonsburg Woman

The family of a missing Canonsburg woman is using social media, posters, prayer vigils, friends, family, and the police in an effort to find Murphy Jane Hickerson. 

Hickerson, 43, was last seen near Hutchinson Avenue in Canonsburg Saturday. “This has never happened before, she is always in touch,” said Hickerson’s sister, Tanya Sexton.  “We usually talk or text two to three times a day."

"We have been tracking her cell phone and credit cards, but so far there has been no activity," said Detective Al Goghill. "She had booked a flight for Thursday night from Pittsburgh to Los Angeles, before all of this broke, so officers and the TSA waited for her at the gate, but she never showed." Goghill said Hickerson had planned to visit her brother in California.

Murphy Jane Hickerson lived with her mother, Delores Hickerson, a retired schoolteacher, in Canonsburg.

Delores told KDKA-TV she went out for few hours with another daughter and when she came home, Murphy Jane was missing. 

Hickerson underwent kidney and pancreas transplants last March. Police consider her an “endangered missing person” because she may not have her anti-rejection drugs. 

“The police have been very supportive,” said Sexton. The family is also hoping social media might help. “We have several Facebook blasts, with numerous repostings, and several friends and family are spreading the word through other Internet networks, said Sexton. “We have also heard of various prayer vigils, and not just in this area.” 

Sexton said her sister has battled depression, and had been particularly worried about a terminally ill cousin who lives in New York City. “They have been close for many years, and it’s been very difficult since his condition worsened,” Sexton said. 

Posters of the missing woman are being distributed in Canonsburg and New York City, where her family said it’s possible she traveled to see her ailing cousin. 

"We are also concentrating our search in New York," said Detective Coghill. "We just hope she shows up there, and that nothing has happened."

According to police, Hickerson drives a 2009 Honda CRV with the license plate HDZ-1217.

Anyone with information about her location is asked to call 911.

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