71-Year-Old and Her Great-Granddaughter Go Missing on Christmas While Driving Cross Country

Local and state authorities are searching for a 71-year-old New Jersey woman and her 5-year-old great-granddaughter who vanished Christmas day on a drive down the coast to North Carolina, where relatives were expecting them for a holiday celebration, PEOPLE confirms.

No one has seen or heard from Barbara Briley since the morning of Dec. 25, when she stopped in to a Virginia convenience store to ask for directions, according to a statement from Hamilton Township, New Jersey, police.

Authorities say that Briley and her great-granddaughter, La’Myra Briley, left from Mays Landing, New Jersey, on Saturday morning and were headed for Morven, North Carolina, to meet with family for Christmas.

According to investigators, surveillance footage shows Briley entering a gas station convenience store in Ruther Glen, Virginia, early on Christmas morning. (Local reports say the Brileys were last seen there on Christmas Eve, though the cause of that discrepancy was not immediately clear.)

The police statement, obtained by PEOPLE, says Barbara “appeared to be in good health.”

A clerk at the gas station reportedly helped provide Barbara with directions, telling WTVD, “I can’t believe that I actually physically spent time with her and helped her get to her destination and she didn’t make it.”

Family members reported them missing when they didn’t arrive in Morven on time. Several relatives set out on I-95 and I-85, in an attempt to find them. They told WPVI that Barbara had said she was lost in Virginia — which was strange because she had made the drive to North Carolina multiple times over several years.

Briley’s car is a silver 2014 Toyota Rav 4, with the New Jersey license plate C80 ELS.

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Detectives from Hamilton as well as the New Jersey State Police, the Virginia State Police and Morven police are involved in the search for Barbara and La’Myra.

Anyone who may have any information concerning their whereabouts is urged to called 609-625-2700, ext. 578.

According to police, Briley’s phone was last pinged Tuesday morning in the Tri-Cities of Virginia — an area in the Greater Richmond Region which includes Petersburg, Colonial Heights and Hopewell.

The Briley family could not immediately be reached.

La’Myra’s father told WPVI, “It’s hard for me, trying so hard not to cry.”