KC woman left police station with no keys, phone or wallet. She hasn’t been seen since
Victor Bischoff begins each morning by calling his mother with updates from Kansas City police. The conversations have been much the same recently:
They still haven’t found his sister.
Marina Bischoff, 39, left the Kansas City Police Department’s Shoal Creek Patrol Division about 7 a.m. May 28. She was last seen about an hour and a half later, still nearby the police station, on Pleasant Valley Road between Searcy Creek Parkway and North Crystal Avenue.
It seemed as if she was waiting for a ride, police said. Bischoff hasn’t been seen since.
Her brother, Victor, 43, made a trip to Kansas City to help search for her in the days following her disappearance. But now he helps over the phone from his Austin, Texas, home.
He is concerned that his sister was allowed to leave the police station without law enforcement verifying she had a way to get home. She didn’t have her phone, keys or wallet when she stepped out of the station and into the rain.
It’s been three weeks. Some days it feels like they’re making progress. Other days it doesn’t.
“It’s kind of a pit in your stomach,” Victor Bischoff said.
A gentle soul
Sara Archer and Marina Bischoff became fast friends in high school in Cincinnati.
Bischoff’s family eventually moved back to Brazil and her brother moved to Texas. But Bischoff stayed in Cincinnati, becoming like extended family to Archer.
After Archer got into graduate school, Bischoff dropped pepper spray off at her house before Archer made the solo move to Philadelphia.
When Archer and her husband eloped, Bischoff threw them a wedding brunch for their return.
Archer, now 39 and living in Los Angeles, describes her friend as a gentle soul, an introvert and an artist.
When Bischoff said she wanted to pursue a career in social work, Archer wasn’t surprised.
She has a heart for children, even though she doesn’t have any of her own, Archer said.
When Bischoff began working in a hospital in Cincinnati, she told Archer how lucky she felt to guide families through their difficult moments. The tough days and fatigue were worth it.
About two years ago, Bischoff moved from Ohio to Missouri where she took a job as a social worker at Children’s Mercy Hospital.
Her brother said Bischoff’s depression, which she works hard to manage, helps her relate to many of the youth she works with.
Recently she’d been volunteering at a local urgent care center. The days became more taxing on Bischoff as coronavirus spread to Kansas City.
Bischoff and Archer texted every day. Archer sent silly memes to try and lighten the mood.
About a month and a half ago, the conversations between Victor Bischoff, his sister and their mother in Brazil began to focus on Marina’s fears about testing and PPE shortages at the hospital.
“You could tell the stress level was increasing,” he said. “That was everything surrounding her, that was her discussion, that was her conversation, almost like it engulfed her.”
‘Completely uncharacteristic’
The day before she disappeared, Bischoff was arrested on suspicion of driving while impaired and leaving the scene of a crash after she drove into someone’s yard.
She left the car, then came back to it when she saw police approaching, the brother said he heard from a witness.
But she didn’t have her cellphone or her car keys. Both were found late last week in some woods. Bischoff said it sounds like his sister might’ve thrown them. He can’t make heads or tails as to why.
All of this is “completely uncharacteristic” of her, he said before adding, “something must have thrown her off.”
There are gaping holes in the story, Archer said. It all seems so bizarre.
Bischoff never drank, she said.
“She was so freaked out about coronavirus and health that I don’t think she’d just be gallivanting around town for any reason,” Archer said.
“It feels to me like something was really wrong and I don’t know what happened to get her to that state.”
Leaving the station
Bischoff made multiple calls from within the police station before she left, police said. Her brother doesn’t know who she called, but believes that information could be critical to finding her.
She was released from detention on a signature bond, “per COVID-19 protocols to reduce detention populations of non-violent offenders,” police said.
Bischoff did not seem impaired when she left the station wearing a black shirt and blue jeans, according to a department news release which stated staff “deemed her competent to be released.”
Kansas City police spokesman Sgt. Jacob Becchina said it is standard procedure to ensure people leave the station with all possessions they arrived with. In this case, her family said, Bischoff arrived with nothing so she left with nothing.
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Victor Bischoff doesn’t blame police, but he has concerns.
“Why would they let someone go out by themselves?” he asked.
There were no developments in the search for Bischoff as of Wednesday, Becchina said.
The search continues
Since Archer lives in LA and has a husband vulnerable to COVID-19, her family in Cincinnati has offered to drive to Kansas City if the search for Bischoff continues.
Archer said it’s so easy to let the faces of missing people looking up from posters and social media posts pass by amid everyone’s busy lives. But they may have the power to bring a neighbor’s loved one home.
Bischoff cares so much for Kansas City and for the people there that she may very well be the first person helping with a search.
“Just taking a second, something that seemed innocuous may help a ton in us finding her,” Archer said.
“Somebody must have seen something.”
This story was originally published June 18, 2020 at 11:13 AM.
