Family of missing Toowoomba woman fears the worst

The family of a young woman missing in Toowoomba for three days say they have given up hope of finding Jana Armstrong alive.

"You won't see her walking around in public. You just won't. Hence why we're searching in bushland," sister Faith Isaacs said while cuddling her baby nephew.

Police have revealed that Ms Armstrong's car, a white Hyundai Kona, was seen in three different locations: Rangeville, on the eastern edge of Toowoomba, at Preston on the Great Dividing Range south of the city and at Darling Heights, south-west of the CBD, between the hours of 9pm and 10:15pm on July 7.

The car was then back near her home in Newtown between 3am and 5am on July 8.

On Friday, police and SES searched an area along Tabletop Drive at Rangeville and will continue searching over the weekend.

Detective Acting Inspector Brian Collins of the Darling Downs District said police were suspicious of the way in which Ms Armstrong disappeared.

"The circumstances in which the vehicle was located down below from her address and she was nowhere to be seen immediately raised our suspicions," he said.

"The car was left sort of in an unusual spot, basically parked in the middle of the road.

"[it is] very alarming that a 30-year-old female with a four-month-old child disappears overnight."

Police are calling for anyone with information, CCTV footage or dash cam vision of the vehicle in the four locations to come forward.

Police have said Ms Armstrong's baby was found at her home but there had been no sign of her since last Tuesday.

Ms Armstrong's siblings, older brother Sam Davison and younger sister Ms Isaacs, say it is totally out of character for the young mother, still breastfeeding, to have abandoned her little boy.

The family is calling on anyone with any information that could assist police to find their sister to come forward to police.

"If they have any information, to reach out, contact police immediately. And we would appreciate people helping by looking in their backyards or going for a walk … looking in those creeks and the gullies and any bushland to see if we can find her," Ms Isaacs said.

The family said Ms Armstrong was the kind of person who always put others before herself.

"She's very caring and the best sister and auntie and an even better mother to her son. And she's just very loved and missed at the moment," Ms Isaacs said.

Mr Davison added that his sister was outgoing and caring. "It's very out of the ordinary that she would have just got up and walked away. It's definitely more to the story that we don't know."

Ms Armstrong was last seen alive on Tuesday, July 7, at her home in the Toowoomba suburb of Newtown, 120 km west of Brisbane, and was reported missing on Wednesday.

Her car was found on the corner of Jellicoe Street and Gordon Avenue at Newtown, about 500 metres from her home at 6am on Wednesday.

On Friday morning, police forensic crews returned to the home, a duplex, to continue bagging items for removal.

The family says the uncertainty and confusion is hard to bear.

Ms Isaacs saw her sister on the day she went missing.

"We had met up for brunch and she seemed herself, but now that I'm looking back, there might have been a couple of things that weren't right," Ms Isaacs recalled.

Police have released CCTV footage of Ms Armstrong arriving and parking at the cafe where she met her sister for brunch, pushing her baby in a pram and then holding the baby while walking inside the cafe.

The next day, Ms Isaacs messaged her sister. She now believes the response may not have been sent by Ms Armstrong but by someone else.

Barbara Bar, who lived opposite Ms Isaacs and spent time with her and the baby, did not hear anything suspicious on the night Ms Isaacs was last seen.

"She was here and now all this mystery. This is one of the greatest mysteries I've ever seen," Mrs Bar said.

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