Search still on for missing L. Merion mother

A 76ers player hosting a small gathering at his Penn Valley home was one of the last people to see a Chester County mother before she vanished more than 10 weeks ago.

Lower Merion Township police say Sixers guard Willie Green had nothing to do with the disappearance of 29-year-old Toni Lee Sharpless. Police have confirmed her presence at his house, though they did not publicly release the connection earlier.

Green asked her and a friend to leave his residence about 5 a.m. Aug. 23 after a "verbal dispute," police said.

Since then, her car - a black 2002 four-door Pontiac Grand Prix with Pennsylvania tag number DND-7772 - has not been found.

Her cell phone has not been used since she texted her 12-year-old daughter, urging her to get a good night's sleep, a few hours before leaving Green's.

Her credit cards? No activity.

"It's hard to fathom the fact that nothing has turned up," said Lower Merion Police Lt. Frank Higgins, a lead investigator.

So far, the probe has produced little more than publicity, frustration, and ever-growing fears.

"It's a horrible story, and there's nothing jumping out," Higgins said, adding that he wished he had news for Sharpless' parents. "I'd hate to be in their shoes. I can't imagine what it would be like."

Donna and Peter Knebel, who lived with their daughter and granddaughter in West Brandywine Township, said they never could have imagined being in such pain.

"What does my gut say? Something bad happened," said Donna Knebel, who works in court administration at the Chester County Justice Center.

Her husband, who works in the county contracts and purchasing department, agreed: "I've said from the very beginning there's foul play here. Something went very wrong."

The Knebels last saw their daughter when she returned from a shopping excursion and asked if they would watch their granddaughter so she could go out with a friend, Crystal Johns.

They planned to go to the Ice nightclub in King of Prussia, then to G Lounge near Rittenhouse Square, where they would meet up with a pro athlete because Johns had dated his brother, the Knebels said.

Her daughter also indicated she'd spend the night at Johns' house in Coatesville.

That never happened.

Higgins said that after Johns and Sharpless left Green's home, they got into Sharpless' car but argued about whether she was OK to drive. Sharpless asked Johns to get out of the car, which she did, Higgins said.

The Knebels said they were troubled that they had learned from the media - not police - that the home belonged to Green.

Higgins said he saw no need to sensationalize the case.

"The real issue is what happened after they left. That's what we're interested in," he said. "The Willie Green angle is a dead end for us."

Green's agent, Noah Croom, called his client "beyond reproach" and forthcoming with police.

Johns, who said she had passed a voluntary lie-detector test for police, said the pair had left the gathering because it was clear that Sharpless had too much to drink.

"She wasn't falling down, but her behavior did change," Johns said. "Plus, it was time to go. It was 5 in the morning."

Johns felt "in better shape" to drive, she said, and was stunned when Sharpless did not come back for her, forcing her to call a relative for a ride.

The Knebels wonder why the basketball player and his guests did not take steps to ensure their daughter got home safely.

Green would not comment, saying: "I've already talked to the authorities, and they have all the information."

The Knebels said their daughter is no stranger to adversity, but a potent combination of circumstances may have rendered her powerless to care for herself.

In 2004, Sharpless, who worked as an infectious-diseases nurse at Lancaster General Hospital, received a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, an illness characterized by alternating periods of excitability (mania) and depression, her parents said.

The day before she vanished, Sharpless said "her scrips were getting low" and asked her mother to obtain refills.

Christos Ballas, a psychiatry professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, said mixing alcohol with standard bipolar medications would increase the effects of the alcohol, such as impaired judgment and fatigue.

Ballas said stopping the medication would likely produce headaches and dizziness, and mania or depression.

That scenario often lands patients in psychiatric hospitals, where it's not unusual for them to be unidentified, he said. Medical privacy laws "are so complex that some hospitals don't know they can contact police. But 10 weeks is a long time to be missing."

Sharpless' prescription request is just one reason the Knebels say their daughter did not plan to disappear.

Sharpless was also looking forward to an outing with her daughter to French Creek State Park the day after she vanished, her parents said.

The Knebels found it difficult to hear suggestions from police early on that their daughter might have wanted a break from the family.

"That wasn't like her," said Peter Knebel, father to Sharpless after her own father died when she was little. "She was so close to her mother and daughter.

"I pray every night that we find her or find out what happened."

The Knebels called her a young woman with pluck and determination.

Though Sharpless became a mother at 17, she graduated with honors from Coatesville High School, her parents said.

"I remember her standing in front of a mirror with her daughter, who was about a month old, and saying, 'One of these days, I'm going to make something of myself. You'll see,' " Donna Knebel recalled, her eyes welling.

She kept that promise, her mother said.

Working as a certified nursing assistant inspired her to pay her way through nursing school, her parents said. She graduated from Brandywine Hospital's school of nursing in 2007, began working at Lancaster General Hospital right away, and was planning to seek a master's degree.

The ordeal has turned the couple into zealous advocates, who express "eternal gratitude" to the many people who have assisted them.

They have appeared on national TV and enlisted the services of Texas EquuSearch, a nonprofit search-and-recovery firm that used sonar to see if Sharpless had driven into the Schuylkill near Flat Rock Park in Gladwyne.

None of the submerged cars found was hers.

They have conducted land searches, attended vigils, and hired a private investigator.

Touched by Sharpless' daughter, Eileen Auch Law said she was working the case free.

Law believes Sharpless ran out of gas - Johns said the tank had been only half full when they left Chester County - and was vulnerable to exploitation, perhaps by a drug or prostitution ring.

Law set up a Sharpless Facebook page and a Web site - www.MissingToniSharpless.com - to generate leads, none of which has panned out. A reward fund was set up through Downingtown National Bank, she said.

Law, who has distributed posters, is hosting a public informational meeting on the case at the Veterans of Foreign Wars post at 1:45 p.m. today at 837 Lincoln Ave. in West Chester. Johns plans to be there.

"I don't know what happened. I just want to find my friend," Johns said. "I would like to believe she's still alive. I have hope."