SUMTER, S.C. — On the eve of a missing Sumter woman's 21st birthday, there's a renewed push for information into where she and her two year old son could be. Neither has been seen in about four months.
“We were having a cookout. And so that was the last time I saw her,” James Robinson says about his neighbor, Sophia Van Dam.
Van Dam and her two-year-old son Matteo have been missing for months. Robinson didn't want to be interviewed on camera, but he says Van Dam was new to the area. The last time he saw her was June 19.
“I would see her in the mornings. I guess she was going to work,” Robinson recalls. “I would see her leave in the morning. Come back in the evening.”
Now, the grass outside of Van Dam's house is growing tall as her family and investigators are left searching for answers.
In a press release on Friday, officials are again asking the public for any information. Her mother, Theresa Van Dam, says in a statement, “We love her and Matteo very much, and we’re waiting to celebrate her birthday in style when she comes home.”
Teresa says she still has hope and wants her family brought back.
Law enforcement says Van Dam was last seen driving to her Sumter home from Beaufort on June 24. Sumter Police Department says when officers went to search her home after her family hadn’t heard from her, Van Dam’s car was out front.
Robinson tells me officers searched her home for days.
“There was a bunch of them,” Robinson remembers. “So they took a lot of bags; there was a lot of them. For days, there was a lot of them.”
Now, Sumter PD has teamed up with the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office, South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and the FBI, working to investigate leads and hoping to get tips from the public.
“If they did know something, it would be nice to do the right thing,” Robinson says about anyone who might have information.
Investigators tell us they are not able to provide any more information since this is an active investigation. Anyone with information can report tips anonymously by calling Crime Stoppers at 1-888-CRIME-SC or online at P3tips.com.