Via: Eurweb.com
*Angela Martin, an “American Idol” auditioner in Chicago who wowed all four judges with her rendition of Mary J. Blige’s “Just Fine” (watch clip below), continues to search for her missing mother, who was last seen leaving a family dinner on Christmas day.
Viola Brown Martin never made it to her intended destination, the house of Angela’s older sister. After the family filed a missing person’s report, the Glenwood, Ill., police found Viola’s tan-colored 1999 Chrysler Cirrus on New Year’s Eve in the south Chicago suburbs of Riverdale and Dixmoor, not close to her daughter Latrina’s home.
“We haven’t heard anything yet,” Martin tells People.com. “The detectives have been calling my sisters and myself, and just keeping us informed. They say they are still just looking and asking us more questions, if we know anything but her friends are calling us, so it’s hard.”
When Angela first auditioned for “American Idol” in 2007, the Chicago songstress made it to Hollywood. But once there, she learned that her father had been murdered; shortly thereafter, she was cut in the second round. In 2008, she auditioned once more and made it to the top 50, but she had to leave the competition to go to court to settle a traffic ticket.
On Jan. 19, viewers saw Martin, in her last year of eligibility at the age of 28, get unanimous approval from the judges and another golden ticket to Hollywood. In an interview after the audition, taped in August, she explained that she wanted a better life for her and her 10-year-old daughter, who has Rett Syndrome, a developmental disorder. Four months later, her mother went missing.
“We haven’t stopped looking,” Martin says. “We’ve been out in the cold, and before I left to go to Hollywood, we were looking. I think what hurts us the most was they found her car but they didn’t find her. It was abandoned in a forest preserve in the dark. We just want to know, what were you doing over there?”
Angela describes her mom as 5-ft. tall, about 165 lbs., light-skinned and with blond and brown hair. “My mom’s a very outgoing person,” she says. “She loves people, period, and she loves kids. When people see her, they just need to say, ‘You need to call your kids,’ and she would probably break down and you will know it’s her right off the bat.”
While her family continues to search for her mom and care for her daughter Jessica back in Chicago, Martin says she has gotten lots of love and support from her current “Idol” family.
“The mothers, the other contestants, everyone has really, really held me up,” she says. “They have told me they are praying for me. I mean, the mothers of the contestants that I’m in a competition with have been really supportive. I thank God today because I kind of lost it a lot, seeing the mothers and fathers here, but I’m pretty tough.”
She adds, “Music heals my soul and it heals my heart and I tell everyone, I have a Band-Aid on my heart right now and I don’t know if it is going to fall off soon, but it’s keeping me whole and it’s my music.”
People with information about Viola Martin are being asked to call Glenwood police at 708-253-2420 or the “America’s Most Wanted” hot line at 800-274-6388.
Watch “Angela” blow during her last audition:
