Renewed search for new clues in 2023 disappearance of Chelsea Grimm

WILLIAMS, AZ (AZFamily) — The mysterious disappearance of a San Diego woman in the northern Arizona woods one year ago prompted her parents to come back with their private investigator to try and uncover new clues.

Chelsea Grimm’s family said they’ve eliminated certain tips, but now they’re back to square one and are pleading for help from the public.

“It’s like a bad movie, but it’s reality,” said Stephen Grimm, Chelsea’s father.

This isn’t how the Grimm family pictured their lives one year later.

In September 2023, Chelsea decided to drive across the country from San Diego to their home in Connecticut but stopped in Arizona to camp.

She told her parents she wouldn’t have cell service for a couple of days.

“A couple days after that, I was like, this isn’t right because I normally would talk to or text or email with Chelsea every day,” Janet said.

We know on Sept. 28, Chelsea talked to a police officer in Williams near her campsite, two days before she was seen for the last time by a woodcutter in the area.

“Are you doing alright?” the officer asks in the body cam video.

“Yeah, 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,” Chelsea replies to the officer.

“Watching that video, did she seem like the Chelsea you know?” asked True Crime Arizona correspondent Briana Whitney.

“She sounded remarkably composed and nothing in that camera footage alarmed me,” Janet said.

Her family reported her missing on Oct. 4, which alerted authorities in northern Arizona.

The Coconino County Sheriff’s Office found her car abandoned the next day with flat tires and a lot of her personal belongings inside.

“The thing that concerned me was her camera was in her car,” said Janet. “Her camera was a part of her personality and an extension of who she was, and I would think that if she were leaving the car she would take her camera.”

Police K-9s searched the area of the car within a three-mile radius but didn’t pick up on her scent or any remains.

From there, the clues seem few and far between.

“There were no footprints going away from the car when they found it,” said Stephen. “We have no evidence she got a ride out, so how did she get out of there? How does someone disappear into thin air?”

Her parents hired private investigator Justin Yentes, who gained access to all of Chelsea’s cellphone and digital data, which abruptly end in the woods where she was camping.

“That’s the last point that we have any type of cellphone information,” said Yentes.

Chelsea had recently gone through a breakup and was having a hard time coping.

Yentes is now going back over Chelsea’s own words, searching for any new leads within them.

“There were diaries and journals, and we’re going through all of those with a fine-tooth comb to see if there’s any indication of other people she had contact with,” said Yentes.

Chelsea’s parents don’t know if she’s dead or alive or if foul play is involved or not, but as the mystery only deepens, so does their tenacity to find their daughter.

“I just need to know that whatever happens, I’ve done everything and that her father and I have done, everything we can to make a full court press to find her,” said Janet.

Chelsea’s family is working on getting billboards up off the Interstate 40 freeway near Williams and also launching a poster campaign in northern Arizona to get her face back out there.

Chelsea has a very distinct tattoo of a vine on her left forearm that could help identify her.

If you have any information on her disappearance, please call the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office, which is actively investigating this case alongside her family.

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