The remains of a missing Nebraska mother have been found more than a year after she disappeared as police take a person of interest into custody in the case.
Jerica Hamre was reported missing by her parents from Lincoln on July 3, 2024 after being last heard from days earlier on June 25. Hamre was 30 years old when she vanished.
“Our heart breaks for Jerica’s family and friends who, for the last 18 months, have been searching for answers,” Captain Ben Miller with the Lincoln Police Department said at a news conference Monday.
Police, along with family, friends and volunteers from the community were desperately looking for Hamre, searching near the very grounds she was ultimately found on numerous times, police said.
“The effort of searching over 1,000 square miles of timber, lakes, rivers, and farmland was daunting and never ended as the commitment to find her was unwavering,” Miller said.
On December 17, the cops made a major breakthrough in Hamre’s case when her body was discovered on a rural farm in Furnas County, near Oxford, nearly a 3 hour drive southwest of Lincoln.
The Lincoln Police Department said a representative of the farm’s owners was inspecting the property for a sale when he found Hamre’s body in an old farm shed. Police say they do not believe Hamre has any connection to the farm or its owners.
Police believe Hamre had traveled from Lincoln towards the Oxford area, and that her body been at the farm “for quite some time,” Miller said.
Miller did not have information on Hamre’s exact cause of death but police are treating her case as a homicide.
Authorities have a person of interest in the case, who was already in custody on prior unrelated charges. Investigators do not believe the individual has any connection with the farm where Hamre’s body was found.
The identity of the person of interest has not been revealed and formal charges were not yet brought against the individual at the time of the press conference.
The Independent has reached out to the Lincoln Police Department for any updates in the case.
Hamre’s daughters have been in the care of her parents since she vanished, according to media reports.
“This was not the outcome we had hoped for. We hoped that we could find Jerica alive and well and get her back to her family,” Miller said. “But I think there is value taken that we can get her back to her family at this point and they at least have some answers today.”
