'Her children need her home.' Group seeks to unravel Louisville mom's disappearance

• Knabel was last seen about 1 a.m. Aug. 13
• Knabel is a single mother of two children
• She is approximately 5 feet, 7 inches tall, weighs about 190 pounds, has light brown hair

The search continues for a Louisville mother who has worked with an organization that helps search for missing adults and children but disappeared herself more than two weeks ago.

Andrea Michelle Knabel, 37, has been missing since the early hours of Aug. 13, according to a "Finding Andrea" Facebook page.

She was last seen walking about 1 a.m. Aug. 13 in the 4000 block of Fincastle Road in Louisville's Audubon Park neighborhood, according to Tracy Leonard, a private investigator involved in the search for Knabel.

Knabel is a single mother of two children, and "her children need her home," a post on the "Finding Andrea" page said.

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She is approximately 5 feet, 7 inches tall, weighs about 190 pounds, has light brown hair and was last seen wearing a light colored tank top and white shorts, according to the team looking for her.

The search for Knabel is drawing attention from Missing in America volunteers around the country and also grabbing national and international headlines.

Knabel is "a dedicated member" of Missing in America, a group that tries to find missing adults and children, according to the "Finding Andrea" page.

Missing in America founder Nancy Schaefer Smith said Knabel is the first member of the group to have ever gone missing. Search crews and investigators are working "18 hours a day," Smith added.

On Thursday, crews were handing out flyers in the Shively area and continuing to search around the Louisville area, including near the Ohio River off River Road.

In a video posted to Facebook, Leonard said he is working on Knabel's case along with  Louisville Metro Police.

"We are looking at a couple different avenues and checking leads out daily. We have no indication at this point that leads us to believe that there is any foul play, but we are still very early in our investigation," Leonard said. "… We're just going to continue to look at what facts we discover."

Leonard said he did not want to disclose more details on why Knabel may have walked off in the early hours of Aug. 13 but added "she was pretty upset, pretty wound up when she left walking."

Loved ones and investigators said Knabel had been going through difficult times after getting laid off recently and having her car totaled in a hit-and-run accident.

Leonard said there were some security cameras in the neighborhood Knabel was last seen but "a lot of those cameras weren't active."

Her cell phone was pinged and showed she made phone calls between 1:30 and 2 a.m. in the area where she last seen, Leonard said, but her phone has since "not been active."

Smith said business owners and residents in the area where Knabel was last seen are encouraged to check security camera footage if they have cameras and report "anything out of the ordinary" to police or private investigators.

"She was asking for a ride," Leonard said. "… We don't know if someone picked her up" or is with her.

WAVE 3 News first reported Knabel's disappearance and said reports of a Lyft driver in the area where Knabel was last seen did not pan out.

Leonard said there had been possible sightings of Knabel reported in the Poplar Level Road and Oxmoor areas, but "we haven't been able to confirm anything as of yet."

The private investigator added that Knabel has friends all over Louisville and in Southern Indiana and is a "very well-liked young lady" whose children are the "limelight of her life."

Smith said the main focus "is to find our friend."

"She is loved by so many people," Smith told the Courier Journal while out searching for Knabel on a recent afternoon. "It's all hands on deck. She's my girl. ... We're going to find her."

Anyone with information on Knabel's whereabouts is asked to contact Leonard at 502-618-9337 or tlip2171@gmail.com, investigator Dan Washington at 502-722-8181 or Louisville Metro Police's anonymous tip line at 502-572-5673 (LMPD).

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Reach Billy Kobin at bkobin@courierjournal.com or 502-582-7030. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/subscribe.