FILLEY —  Two weeks ago Tuesday, William Kelley Jr. said goodbye to his wife, Ann Marie Kelley, and left for work.

Just under three hours later, at 8:25 a.m., the 37-year-old mother of four was seen by a relative as she drove into Beatrice, where, a few minutes later, she bought a few things at a Sun Mart grocery store.

And then she disappeared.

In the 15 days since, Kelley hasn’t used her credit cards, Gage County Attorney Randall Ritnour said at a press conference in Beatrice Tuesday morning. She hasn’t called any friends or relatives. She didn’t take her cell phone with her when she left home. 

A gas station clerk in Albion in northeast Nebraska reported seeing a suspicious vehicle shortly after Kelley’s April 15 disappearance, but it wasn’t Kelley’s dark gray, wood-paneled 1991 Plymouth Voyager minivan, Ritnour said.

Ground and air searches near Kelley’s rural Filley home turned up no sign of the petite brunette or her vehicle.

And despite repeated pleas by investigators, no one has come forward with information about where she might have gone.

“There has been nothing, absolutely nothing,” Ritnour said.

During Tuesday’s press conference, Ritnour reiterated his plea for information about Kelley, no matter how trivial it might seem.

“What I want to emphasize is no bit of information is too insignificant,” he said. “We’re not mind readers. We have to have those people come forward.”

Kelley’s family — which has declined to talk with the media — is “terribly worried,” Ritnour said.

Once before, Ritnour said, Kelley left home and was gone for about 12 hours. Even so, friends and family have stressed to investigators that for Kelley to disappear for any longer was out of character.

Her co-workers at the One-Stop Country Store, a convenience store on Nebraska 136 just west of Filley, said Tuesday they, too, were stunned when they first heard that Kelley was missing.

Customers liked Kelley, said Christian Pobamz, a One-Stop cashier, who had trained Kelley when she started just a month or two before her disappearance.

“She was nice. She was quiet,” Pobamz said. “She talked about her kids all the time.”

But she also was shy and didn’t say much about her personal life aside from her children, who sometimes visited their mom at work, Pobamz said.

Pobamz said she aided in a ground search for Kelley last week.

A missing person sign with Kelley’s picture is prominently displayed on the counter at the One-Stop.

“Lots of people are asking about her,” said Casey Hilzinger, another One-Stop cashier. “I know whatever happened, a lot of people are worried about her.”

In addition to her job at One-Stop, Kelley did some cleaning at Southeast Community College and also helped a relative with some upholstery work, Ritnour said.

Kelley’s four children, the youngest of whom is a toddler and the oldest of whom is about 15,  are at home with Kelley’s husband, he said.

Investigators are still following up on one possible lead from Omaha and another from Kansas, he said.

Ritnour said investigators believe Kelley could have traveled up to 320 miles before her minivan would have run out of gas. He asked people in a 320-mile radius to be on the lookout for Kelley — who is 5 feet 4 inches tall, weighs about 125 pounds, with blue eyes and reddish brown hair — as well as her vehicle, which has license plates reading 3-A8045. Her maiden name is Riekenberg for those who may know her by that name, Ritnour said.

Anyone with information can call the Gage County Sheriff's Office at (402) 223-5221 or Beatrice Crime Stoppers at (402) 228-4343.

Reach Cara Pesek at 473-7361 or cpesek@journalstar.com.