Logo

A mother and her two children who mysteriously disappeared after the woman went on a blind date and a fire swept through her Virginia home have been found safe, authorities confirmed to The Post.

Monica Lamping, 29, and her children, 9-month-old Oria and 7-year-old Kai, were located Wednesday morning, Virginia Beach Police Officer Linda Kuehn told The Post. She did not elaborate.

“She’s alive and well, and that’s what everyone was concerned about,” Kuehn told The Post.

Virginia Beach police announced the development on its Twitter feed just minutes before noon.

Lamping, 29, had been last heard from around midnight Sunday and was traveling in a 2002 Jeep Cherokee with her two children.

Investigators from the Virginia Beach Police Department issued the alert on Tuesday due to the “suspicious circumstances” surrounding the extended period of time since Lamping has been seen by friends and family and a fire that destroyed her home over the weekend. No one was home at the time, but two pets were killed in the blaze, WVEC reported.

But police said there were no signs of foul play.

Arth Kohn, a spokesman for the Virginia Beach Fire Department, said an investigation into the cause of the fire is ongoing.

“There is no information at this time,” Kohn said in an email.

Kohn told the Virginian-Pilot that firefighters initially believed a space heated started the blaze.

Moira Lamping, Kai Lamping’s stepmother, told WVEC one of Monica’s friends watched her children so she could go on a blind date with a man named Chad. Police had previously said they were looking to identify that individual.

“She picked the kids back up around 5:30 [Saturday],” Moira Lamping said. “She said something about car trouble and Chad could fix it.”

Moira Lamping said Monica later canceled a babysitting job and has not been heard from since. It remains unclear whether the fire is related to the young mother’s disappearance, but relatives say they’re distraught.

Comments
anonymous profile image
Powered by RoundtableBuilt on infrastructure designed for real-time media. Learn more at RTB.io.© Roundtable 2026. By using this site you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy