Post & Mail photo/Chris Meyers
Police tape marks off a property as police cars line the road in front of a home on West Old Trail Road where a local woman lives who has been reported missing.

By Chris Meyers
Staff writer

     Nearly 50 people from several law enforcement agencies are continuing their search today for a missing local woman.
     Officers with the Whitley County Sheriff’s Department, Indiana State Police, Columbia City Police Department, Indiana Conservation Officers and South Whitley Police are scouring the west-central area of the county for any sign of 49-year-old Deb K. Houser.
     “We are getting ready to resume searching today,” Whitley County Sheriff Mark Hodges said this morning before a strategic planning meeting with officers taking part in the search.
     The investigation began Wednesday morning when a man reported to the sheriff’s department that he was concerned for the welfare of Houser, who was an acquaintance, according to the sheriff’s department.
     By 11 a.m. Wednesday, police had blocked off the area in front of Houser’s home on Old Trail Road near county Road 400 West and marked the front of the property with crime scene tape.
Houser lived at the home on Old Trail Road with her ex-husband and young child.
      A man was taken into custody Wednesday in connection with the investigation, but no formal charges have been filed, and the identity of the man has not been released.
     By early afternoon Wednesday, police had secured a search warrant for the property and spent the rest of the day and most of the evening trudging through wooded areas, fields and river banks.
     Today, police will once again search on foot and on ATVs.
     Houser’s supervisor said she did not show up for work Wednesday and had not called to say she would not be at work, something described by the supervisor as unusual for Houser.

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