Police work to trace Cape Coral woman’s suspicious disappearance

Investigators are working to trace the steps of a young mother who seemed to vanish into thin air.

Nobody has seen 29-year-old Lauren Dumolo in 11 days Tuesday. Cape Coral Police Department considers her disappearance suspicious. Her purse was found at park she frequented, and her cell phone was found by police at her home.

With the help of our Safety & Security Specialist, we looked at her disappearance as police would.

That started with a conversation with her father. Lauren’s dad, Paul Dumolo flew into Southwest Florida from California once his daughter went missing. He says his daughter’s disappearance is out of character.

“Gut feeling as a father, that’s not my daughter,” Paul said. “She would’ve at least called somebody and she would’ve answered my texts.”

Paul admits his daughter’s gone through some tough times but has been on the straight and narrow since she lost custody of her child two years ago. Lauren has a young daughter of 5 years old, who lives up north with her paternal grandmother.

“She didn’t want that for her life anymore,” Paul said. “No matter what it was, she always knew she could reach out to me.”

So, when Paul’s daughter didn’t call him on Father’s Day, he knew something was wrong.

“I can’t cry, man. I gotta stay strong because I gotta find my daughter,” Paul said.

WINK News’ Rich Kolko spent the day with us working Lauren’s disappearance not as a story but as a case.

“As soon as you get that first call that someone’s missing, you want to start to build that timeline,” Kolko said.

June 19, Lauren’s live-in boyfriend was reportedly the last person to see her. That same day, her purse was found at Four Freedoms Park.

“It’s like she fell off the face of the earth,” said. Boom. Gone. “

We saw police canvassing the area and passing out fliers.

A man we saw talking to police didn’t want to be interviewed on the record but told us that the day before, Lauren asked him about available apartments, saying she “wanted to get out of the situation she was in.”

He said he again saw her the next day, on June 19, around 8 a.m. and waved at her as she was walking along the route from the park to her apartment.

“It signals to me that she’s scared of this man,” Paul said. “I have no choice but to think the worst right now.”

CCPD told us the reason they elevated Lauren’s case to endangered is because, when someone disappears voluntarily, they take their belongings, a wallet, a phone. In this case, she did not.

CCPD is asking for anyone with information to come forward. Tipsters can call CCPD at 239-574-3223. Tipsters can also submit an anonymous tip at the Cape Coral Police website, TipSubmit, a message through CCPD social media platforms or Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers at 1-800-780-8477 using case number 20-011323.