Search for missing Salt Lake woman continues

The search continued Monday for a missing Salt Lake woman last heard from on Thursday.

Family members of Deborah Jones, 50, believe she may have been taken against her will by her former live-in boyfriend, Michael Jerome Doyel. Deborah's son, Jeff Jones, said after the two broke up about two weeks ago, Doyel made several threatening phone calls. Some of the threats were violent in nature.

Police issued an endangered person alert Sunday for Jones.

Monday, however, police said they weren't ready to jump to the conclusion a crime had been committed. Salt Lake police detective Robert Eldard declined to call 47-year-old Doyel a "person of interest" in the case. There was no evidence to suggest Jones didn't just leave on her own, he said.

Still, the detective said police were interested in talking to him.

Jones' family, however, believes Doyel is the main person of interest. They have created a Web site, www.finddebbie.com, to help locate their missing loved one. On the site, they said Doyel should be considered a "dangerous person" and made a plea to the public to "help bring Michael Doyel to justice."

While Eldard told a group of reporters gathered in front of Jones' house, near 2800 S. Glenmare (1575 East), Monday that investigators were unsure if a crime had taken place, several of the department's main detectives were inside. A Deseret News reporter was invited by Jeff Jones to speak to him in the back yard, but a short time later he was told by a sergeant to leave. The sergeant called the area a "crime scene."

By Monday afternoon, yellow crime tape was surrounding the Jones house. Eldard said that was because Doyel had lived with Jones for six months before moving out and detectives wanted to take precautions and get a search warrant before continuing the investigation in the house.

He cited the Jeremy Hauck case in Bountiful. Hauck is accused of killing his mother and stuffing her body in a freezer. The defense, however, argued in court that police conducted the search of their home illegally.

Although he wasn't ready to say there was criminal activity, Eldard said Jones' disappearance was considered suspicious because it was not like her to take off without telling anyone.

Jones, a nurse, grandmother and mother of two adult sons, has not shown up for work since Thursday.