ST. LOUIS – The mother of a south St. Louis woman missing for more than three years is shocked over news that investigators were digging in the backyard of the home where they once lived in the 3700 block of Burgen.

“I have nothing to hide,” said Michele Miller, Bre-Ayn Miller’s mother. “I would never hurt my child.”

Bre-Ayn turned 21 a few months before she was last seen in July 2020. Friends say the south St. Louis woman had a verbal dispute with a boyfriend shortly before her disappearance. She was last seen near Delor and South Grand.

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department is not commenting on Monday’s search other than confirming the department requested assistance from the FBI in a missing person’s investigation from 2020.

“We just want answers,” said Tony Davis, a neighbor who said Bre-Ayn was a kind child growing up in the Bevo area.

Michele Miller continues to plead for anyone with information in the case to come forward.

“If anybody knows anything, anything at all, the littlest thing is not unimportant,” she said. “Please come forward.”