Chelsea Grimm is seen in body-worn camera footage (via Williams (Ariz.) Police Department) and inset left (via Grimm family with permission). Inset right: an up-close image of Grimm’s tattoo (via Grimm family with permission)
A California woman working on an art project about “the lost and the forgotten people of this country” went missing herself late last month. But 32-year-old Chelsea Grimm is far from forgotten.
“It’s a nightmare and it’s one that you never could have imagined yourself in and wouldn’t wish on anybody,” her father, Stephen Grimm, told Law&Crime Network host Sierra Gillespie on Monday. “But having said that, we’re hanging in there. We’re holding on to hope. Putting our faith in the law enforcement professionals. We’ve also hired a private investigator, which hopefully will help.”
Chelsea Grimm was last seen on Sept. 30 by a woodcutter near Ash Fork, Arizona. Two days prior, on Sept. 28, a police officer — some 17 miles due east in Williams, Arizona — captured the last-known images of the missing woman on his body-worn camera while briefly talking with Grimm just outside of a war memorial for fallen soldiers.
Crying on the shoulder
“Hello, how are you doing?” the officer asks in the video as Grimm rolls down the window of her 2019 white Ford Escape.
“I’m okay,” Grimm responds. “How are you?”
The two quickly establish that everything is okay with the vehicle and its occupant; no laws are being broken; someone just called in a suspicious car and the officer came to check it out.
“I just was doing a photo shoot of the lost soldiers and got a little emotional, so I was crying before I got back on the road,” Grimm says.
The officer signals his understanding and asks if she has been smoking any marijuana. Grimm said she had “hours and hours ago.”
He then leaves for several minutes to check the registration and ask for guidance about the smoking – though he tells the dispatcher she doesn’t look impaired. The two members of law enforcement settle on more or less leaving the issue undisturbed while advising Grimm to try and find another driver or some place nearby to sleep.
The officer returns to tell Grimm her registration recently expired but doesn’t seem to care — settling on helping her find a safe place to go.
“Yeah, if it’s okay with you if I hang out here for another like 15 or 20 and then head on the road, that would be my plan I think,” Grimm tells the officer.
“Sure, yeah, I don’t see any signs of impairment or anything like that,” the officer replies.
Grimm then reiterates her fear about driving while crying. Next she brings attention to the pet bearded dragon she has in the car with her. The officer reacts with excitement and curiosity.
“Do you have like a hotel around here or anything?” the officer then asks in the recently-released video.
“I don’t,” Grimm replies. “I was actually thinking of just camping for the night, but I wasn’t really sure exactly yet. I didn’t plan to be here until sunset.”
The officer then suggests an alternative to camping — which, he says, is illegal in the city limits anyway.
“I don’t know if you can see, like, the yellow lights up there, the Love’s?” he suggests and signals. “It’s the trucker stop. In the gas station area, you can just sleep there. Nobody will bother you.”
“Awesome, yeah, love that,” Grimm says.
The two then discuss how the light plays off certain features of the area in the morning as the sun rises. Grimm says she’ll sleep at the Love’s and return to take pictures at the memorial.
“Hang out here however long you want,” the officer says before leaving. “And then you’re good to go.”
Flat tires and little to go on
Chelsea Grimm appears alone on the left and with her parents on the right. (Grimm family with permission)
On Oct. 4, Chelsea Grimm was reported missing.
The missing woman’s mother says that Grimm’s pet is one of two distinctive visual indicators that might help strangers identify her.
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“I realize she’s not the only person walking around in Arizona, probably, with a bearded dragon, but there’s probably not a lot of people walking around with their dragons,” Janet Grimm told Law&Crime. “It often is riding on her shoulder, by the way.”
The second thing to look for, her mother said, is a distinctive tattoo on her left arm — which is seen clearly in the body-worn camera footage.
“It’s a vine with leaves on it,” the distraught mother said. “And she designed it herself. And when she was, I think, 16 or 17. I’ve never been particularly fond of tattoos, but hers is noteworthy. It is something that people might pay attention to.”
On Oct. 5, the white Ford Escape was found with two flat tires by hunters in the Kaibab National Forest just northeast of Ash Fork.
The dragon was gone. Her wallet and payment methods were gone. Her driver’s license was gone. Clothes and the sleeping bag she brought with her were also gone. Her camera, however, was left behind.
So far, law enforcement do not suspect foul play.
“The car was locked,” Janet Grimm told Law&Crime. “It was neat. So there were no visual signs of a struggle. And, it’s possible that she just decided that she was going to proceed with her camping.”
The missing woman had originally set out for a wedding in Connecticut, her family said, opting to drive from San Diego instead of flying because she wanted to bring her bearded dragon — a type of reptile so named for its distinctive scaly area below the neck — along with her. After three days of driving and making it only as far as Arizona, she realized the wedding was a non-starter.
On Sept. 27, Chelsea Grimm met a friend in Phoenix and made plans to have lunch the next day. Then she canceled lunch.
Such substantial and abrupt change of plans, her parents said, was not at all out of character – with one caveat.
“She seemed pretty uneven that last day or two,” her father said.
Her parents said she was upset about her romantic life the last time they spoke with her.
“She was upset with a boy she was dating; she was scared of him,” Stephen Grimm added. “We feel like she was running away from him. And I think overall, that was affecting a lot of her mindset.”
Not many new clues
On Saturday, Oct. 14, the Grimm family hired a private investigator. They insist this says nothing about the law enforcement effort so far.
Stephen Grimm explained that the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office has already put in some 500 hours looking for his daughter.
“I feel like we’ve got real professionals who are really trying the very best to find her and we’re grateful for that,” he told Law&Crime. “And yet there are not that many new clues. So understandably, it goes to a slightly different level of immediacy for them, and it just seemed like it couldn’t hurt.”
While considering the worst, her family also doesn’t believe that Chelsea Grimm did anything to harm herself after the tires went out.
An extensive search was conducted of the 3-mile radius around where her car was discovered, her father noted, so she likely would have been found by nearby hunters or loggers – or the many search parties that have combed through the area.
“Maybe she got a ride out of there,” Stephen Grimm told Law&Crime. “That’s what we’re kind of hoping.”
Her mother was intent on reifying the image of the person beyond the headline.
“Chelsea is an incredibly vivacious and talented young lady and she’s got a heart of gold,” Janet Grimm said. “As all of this has unrolled, we — it’s hard to look at the situation in the circumstances, and you need to make sure that the vision of the real person is part of the picture. And she is a treasure.”
“We love you, Chelsea, we can’t wait to see you again,” her father said.
The family is asking anyone with any information whatsoever to contact the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office or private investigator Kelly Townsend. His phone number is (480) 251-7373.
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