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(NewsNation) — Nearly a year after Zoe Penrod left her Northern California home in the midst of a mental health crisis, her fiancé is still searching for her while raising their son.
Zoe Penrod disappears
On Dec. 1, 2023, 39-year-old Penrod left her home in Myers Flat, California, confused and paranoid after experiencing mental health issues following the birth of her son.
Penrod and her fiancé, David Boyett, had been planning a May wedding and had just welcomed their infant son.
The weeks leading up to New Year’s Eve had been rocky for the family. Penrod had been acting erratically and was briefly hospitalized after being diagnosed with postpartum psychosis.
“She wasn’t making any sense whatsoever,” Boyett said. “She was talking about power marbles. She was convinced that there were people listening in on conversations.”
Penrod had endured a 76-hour labor when giving birth to the couple’s son, Daniel, in July of 2023. At the time, she and Boyett were happy and planning a wedding for May 4.
Zoe Penrod was diagnosed with postpartum psychosis
Within five months of Daniel’s birth, Penrod stopped breastfeeding and began acting erratically. She got into a dustup with police at a local casino and ran out onto a highway overpass to avoid help from family and friends.
Penrod was checked into a hospital in Garberville, California, where she was diagnosed with postpartum psychosis. But there weren’t enough beds to keep her, and she was sent home just three days later, with a doctor telling Boyett that she just needed some vitamins, food and rest.
“I was like, ‘You’re telling me a snack and a nap is what you prescribed to her, and now she’s okay?'” Boyett said.
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Penrod wasn’t okay. Within days of her release, her delusions reappeared and accelerated. She was up in the early morning hours of Dec. 31, pacing.
“She was sprinkling me with that water, saying, ‘Bless you, bless you,’ but then she started drawing these crosses everywhere all over the house on cabinet doors, on chairs, on the door to the house,” Boyett said. “She just started drawing these crosses all over the walls of the house.”
Then Penrod went outside into the yard. When Boyett went after her, trying to get her to come back inside, their son began to cry. When Boyett went inside to change the baby’s diaper, Penrod disappeared.
Searching for Zoe Penrod
Boyett walked around the neighborhood but couldn’t find Penrod. He reported her missing the next day.
Deputies from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office searched for Pernod on land and by aircraft. She was seen on a surveillance camera at a business in the area, wearing a light-colored bathrobe and walking north about 8:30 on the morning she left.
Zoe Penrod and her fiancé David Boyett were planning a May Wedding. David Boyett) 
David Boyett has been searching for Zoe Penrod for almost a year. (David Boyett) 
Zoe Penrod had recently given birth to a son. (David Boyett) 
Zoe Penrod was last seen walking away from her home in Northern California. (David Boyett) 
Zoe Penrod was released from a hospital because there were not enough beds. (David Boyett) 
David Boyett and Zoe Penrod were happy to welcome their first child. (David Boyett) 
Zoe Penrod had been diagnosed with post-partum psychosis. (David Boyett) 
Zoe Penrod had been suffering delusions and paranoia. (David Boyett) 
Zoe Penrod was last seen on surveillance footage at a nearby business. (David Boyett)
“I think that somebody picked her up, and I think in that state of mind, she would easily be coerced into a car,” Boyett said. “She’s cold, she’s hungry, she’s been out in the woods all night long, it’s raining, it’s cold, it’s miserable. So somebody could have coaxed her into a car pretty easily.”
But Penrod wasn’t just dealing with mental illness when she went missing.
Zoe Penrod’s legal troubles
She and Boyett were involved in a lengthy legal dispute with her adopted mother, Karen Penrod. Boyett said he’s been very troubled by a letter her mother sent her months before she disappeared.
They were fighting over Zoe and her sister Jesse’s inheritance of some property of her grandmother’s.
“I will spend all my money and also Jesse’s to get you removed as a trust beneficiary,” Karen Penrod said in a letter to her daughter.
What comes next is what troubles Boyett.
“Then, her next sentence is the one that draws the most interest to me. It says, ‘You will be legally dead.’ Period,” he said.
Almost a year later, Boyett is haunted by the letter and the fact that he still has no answers.
“Right now, I’m just so upside down with everything in this world,” Boyett said. “Because I don’t have my partner, I don’t have my other half, and it’s killing me every day.”
Zoe Penrod is 5 foot 5 inches and weighs about 140 pounds with green eyes and red hair. She was last seen wearing a beige bathrobe and green shoes. Anyone with information about her location should contact the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 445-7439.
