FBI joins search for missing Lumberton woman

LUMBERTON, North Carolina (WTVD) -- The FBI has joined the search for a 20-year-old Lumberton woman who was last seen September 5 in the same area where three other women have been found dead.

The Lumberton Police Department said earlier this year there is no indication the cases are related.

Police said Abby Patterson was last seen getting into a brown Buick in the area of 9th Street in Lumberton. She is described as 5'7, 140 lbs., with brown hair, brown eyes and a light skin tone. She was last seen wearing brown shorts and a white shirt. She has a birthmark on the back of her right thigh and a bird tattoo on her shoulder.

Patterson's family and friends are offering a $5,000 reward. Anyone with information is asked to call the FBI's Charlotte Field Office at (704) 672-6100 or the Lumberton Police Department at (910) 671-3845.

MORE: Lumberton police look for links between 3 bodies

In June, Megan Oxendine's body was found in the yard of an abandoned house on East 8th Street in east Lumberton. Close friends and family said the 28-year-old was naked, gagged and bloodied.

RELATED: Body found behind vacant house in Lumberton

On April 18, one woman was found on Peachtree Street while another was found in a dumpster on East Fifth Street. Both women were so badly decomposed that it took days for police to identify them as Rhonda Jones and Christina Bennett.

RELATED: Bodies of two women found in Lumberton

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