LUMBERTON, N.C. (WNCN) — A Robeson County family is mourning, wondering what happened and how Susan McGirt died after authorities found her skeletal remains about two weeks ago.
The Lumberton woman vanished last July.
In an exclusive interview, CBS 17 talked with McGirt’s daughter, Mary Wesson, who is trying to cope with the reality that her mother is gone.
“All we got is bones,” Wesson said. “We can’t even see her face no more.”
For eight months, Wesson wondered what happened.
“It’s an agonizing pain that nobody should ever have to go through,” Wesson said. “It’s pure hell.”
McGirt went missing July 4, 2018, days after checking in to an assisted living facility in Lumberton.
A Silver Alert was issued following McGirt’s disappearance.
“She just had a grandbaby, and she never even got to lay her eyes on that baby,” Wesson said. “Kids were her passion. She loved kids.”
This weekend, Wesson has more questions
“Nobody’s family should have to walk a railroad track to try and find where their mother’s last breath was taken,” she said.
According to the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office, McGirt’s remains were found near railroad tracks on Powersville Road.
In January, Wesson told CBS 17 she was still holding out hope her mother would be found alive.
She said her mother dealt from mental health conditions, including bipolar disorder and paranoid schizophrenia, and had been taking medications for decades.
“I think she just walked off, and got lost,” Wesson said. “It’s still going to be hard to put it behind us, not knowing how she exactly died.”
Wesson wants to raise awareness for missing adults with mental illness
“When these people are fighting mental battles, dementia, Alzheimer’s, they are a child,” Wesson said. “In a sense, they are a child. These missing adults deserve the same national attention, and the same efforts to locate these people as children do.”
She believes she has some closure, as she prepares to lay her mother to rest.
An autopsy will be performed by the North Carolina Medical Examiner’s Office to determine the cause of death.
McGirt’s funeral is set for Monday afternoon in Pembroke.
