MOUNT DORA, Fla. – A $10,000 reward has been offered for information about a Mount Dora mother who went missing last year, according to the police department.
Investigators said in a Tuesday news release that they raised the reward from $5,000 as they seek leads in the case of Nicole Baldwin, 41, who was last seen at her home on Strathmore Circle off County Road 44 on Nov. 2, 2023.
According to police, Baldwin was last seen by her 20-year-old daughter, who had celebrated her birthday the day prior. Baldwin reportedly left all of her belongings behind, including her phone, purse and shoes.
“Investigators do not believe that Nicole Baldwin left the residence on her own, and her disappearance was a result of foul play,” the news release reads.
Just over a month after Baldwin originally went missing, her husband — Brett Baldwin — was arrested on a federal charge of possessing child pornography after investigators said they found the illicit material on his cellphone.
At the time, investigators explained that they had seized Brett Baldwin’s phone “for evidence relating to the missing person.”
In a complaint, investigators said that Brett Baldwin had moved from Mount Dora to his mother’s home in Wildwood following his wife’s disappearance, bringing along his 11-year-old daughter and 13-year-old son.
Detectives added that Brett Baldwin was planning to move to North Carolina soon afterward.
The community searched for Nicole Baldwin’s whereabouts for months after her initial disappearance, but in April police announced they were treating it as a homicide investigation.
“It’s extremely hard to solve a homicide without any remains, so we’re going to continue to look,” Detective Gary Hutcheson said. “That’s been going on continuously since November. I can tell you that we’ve wrote in the neighborhood of 200 search warrants and subpoenas on this case, so we’re doing everything we can.”
Anyone with information about the case is urged to give an anonymous tip by calling Crimeline at 800-423-8477 or visiting Crimeline’s website here. Tips could be eligible for a reward of up to $10,000.
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