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Woman wants answers after husband disappears
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James Martinson
Brandy Martinson burst out laughing Wednesday at a gag on a television show. Then she cried, feeling guilty that she would find something funny while her husband of four years, James Martinson of Chandler, is missing.
Chandler man missing in Yavapai County
His unlocked car and some of his belongings, including his wallet, cell phone and computer, were found Saturday on southbound Interstate 17 at the Stoneman Lake exit. The car was about 36 miles south of Flagstaff, where he worked for Wells Fargo and lived during the week.
"It's just nerve-racking, just waiting," Martinson said as she sat on a bench outside the front door of her Chandler home.
Brandy Martinson last spoke with her husband March 20 around 6:45 p.m.
She was expecting him back on Friday between noon and 2 p.m., which was his habit.
When he hadn't come home by 3 p.m., she sent him a text message that read: "Hi, are you lost?"
His phone would ring without rolling over to voice mail.
At first, she thought maybe he had stopped to rest because he often suffered from vertigo.
But when he still hadn't shown up, Brandy and her parents drove to Flagstaff and checked the house where he stayed and the hospitals.
They were returning to the Valley when they found his car, a dark green Nissan Pathfinder, at the Stoneman Lake exit.
An abandoned vehicle tag had been placed on it at 2 p.m. Friday.
She said investigators with the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office found a receipt from a Flagstaff store that had been time-stamped early Friday.
Dwight D'Evelyn, Yavapai County sheriff's spokesman, said the office conducted a search using tracker dogs, a helicopter and a Forest Patrol search team Sunday and Monday, but came up with nothing.
Investigators also searched James Martinson's car but found nothing to establish or explain his disappearance, D'Evelyn said.
James Martinson moved to Arizona in 2000 from South Dakota.
The Martinsons met when he interviewed Brandy for a job at a financial company.
"We actually were dating and married within a year," said Brandy Martinson, who described her husband as quiet and shy.
For now, she feels helpless not knowing what happened.
"I still have the hope he's just going to walk through the door," she said.
Anyone with information on James Martinson's whereabouts is asked to call the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office at (928) 771-3260 or Yavapai Silent Witness at (800) 932-3232.
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