‘It’s Not Like Her To Just Take Off Like This’: Family Pleads For Return Of Missing Montana Mom Who Vanished Last Month

The family of a Montana mother of three who was last seen a month ago, is concerned the young woman is being held against her will.

Last month, Kimberly Iron, 21, disappeared from her Billings, Montana home. 

“We’re just very worried,” Kimberly’s father, Curtis Iron, told Dateline. “Her kids keep asking about her. When I go visit them, they look in my truck and say, ‘Is our mom with you?’ It just breaks my heart.”

On Sept. 22, Curtis said he received a strange phone call from his daughter. She called from Las Vegas claiming her boyfriend had just been arrested. Curtis thought it was odd because he didn't know his daughter to travel out of state, particularly without her children. 

“She was crying and really upset,” Curtis told Dateline. “She was trying to get home.”

He would go for days at a time without hearing from her, he said. Then the phone calls, which he described as brief, started coming in from different locations like Long Beach or Oxnard, California. Curtis said his daughter never revealed her exact location and would go days without texting or calling. He also noticed a pattern to the phone calls: his daughter was always on speaker phone.

“Something didn’t add up,” he said. “She was always on speaker phone. So the people she was with — whoever they were — could hear everything she was saying. She would tell me that she was OK, but she didn’t sound OK to me. She didn’t sound like herself.”

Curtis last spoke to his daughter on the phone on Oct. 6. The call was later traced to the Los Angeles area. 

The concerned father is now worried his daughter may have been abducted and is possibly being sex-trafficked. 

“It’s not like her to just take off like this,” Curtis said. “She wouldn’t leave her kids. Something isn’t right. If she’s safe, then all she has to do is tell the police. But that’s not happening. So to me, something is wrong.”

Friends and family of the missing woman said, they too, received strange messages from the Montana mother’s social media accounts. 

“She has responded, but it doesn’t make sense,” Marilyn Chief told Dateline. “The responses are short and odd. They don’t sound like her. We feel like someone is messing with us.”

A missing person’s report has been filed and the Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office, which is leading the investigation, suspect Kimberly is still in California. 

“We believe that at this time, Kimberly Iron is in the Greater Los Angeles area,” Captain J. Middlestead told Dateline. “We know she has contacted her family, but until she notifies law enforcement, this is still considered to be a missing persons case.”

Authorities were unable to clarify whether they suspect foul play in the young mother’s disappearance. 

“We’re doing everything we can to locate her and if anyone has information that could help, we urge them to call the sheriff’s office,” Middlestead said. “Any little bit helps.”

The 21-year-old grew up on Crow Indian Reservation but was living in Billings at the time she vanished, family said. Kimberly Iron is approximately 5’2” tall and weighs about 126 pounds. She has brown eyes and light brown hair, as well as a scar between her eyes. 

A Facebook page has since been set up to spread awareness surrounding her disappearance.  

“We need to know that she’s OK,” Curtis told Dateline. “Her kids are missing her so much and just want her back home. We have hope. … Just gotta hold on to that.”

Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office didn’t immediately respond to Oxygen.com’s request for comment on Tuesday.

Anyone with information related to Kimberly Iron’s whereabouts is urged to contact county authorities at 406-665-9780.