“It’s been a nightmare ever since,” Danielle Bartlett’s mother told local news amid her daughter’s disappearance

NEED TO KNOW

• Danielle Bartlett has been missing since March 20, when she was last seen in Toronto’s Mimico neighborhood
• Her family says she would never leave her new puppy or stop responding to her father, raising concerns
• Loved ones are offering a $10,000 reward and spreading awareness to help locate Danielle, who has distinctive tattoos

A family in Toronto has been living a “nightmare” since their daughter went missing nearly five months ago.

Thirty-five-year-old Danielle Bartlett hasn’t been seen since March, and her family is now offering a monetary reward totaling $10,000 for any information about her disappearance, according to CTV News Toronto.

Before she disappeared from her apartment in the Mimico neighborhood of Toronto, Danielle’s family says she was starting school and had just begun staying in a new place. She had also just gotten a puppy — which her mother says is the “key” to her disappearance.

“Her puppy is the key. She would never leave that puppy alone,” Danielle’s mother Kelly Bartlett told CTV News in an emotional interview.

The other abnormality, the family told CTV News, is that she has not reached out to her father.

“She was always in contact with my dad, no matter what. As soon as my dad would message her, she would right away get back to him,” Danielle’s sister Chelsea Bartlett told the Toronto outlet. “The fact she is not reaching out to him tells us that something is wrong. She would have never gone this long without contacting him.”

“This is completely out of her character,” Chelsea said of her older sister.

Danielle was last seen on the evening of Friday, March 20, around 7:30 p.m. local time. In the months since, loved ones have been putting up posters and spreading awareness online in an effort to locate her.

“The minute I found out she was missing, I packed up and drove straight through. It’s been a nightmare ever since,” her mother, Kelly, told CTV News. “Somebody somewhere knows something. Just please let her go, bring her home to us. We need her.”

“It’s my middle cub,” Kelly said of her missing daughter. “I used to say my three cubs. I just want her home. I need her home.”

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“Every day you wake up and it’s ground zero again,” Chelsea said, “and mentally it’s taken a toll on all of us, physically, but every day we’re going to wake up and fight for Danielle because she’s our third. We need her.”

“We’re just trying to get through every day and share her beautiful face,” the sister said.

Police last issued a missing person’s release for Danielle in April.

In a statement shared with PEOPLE, a Toronto Police Service spokesperson said, “The investigation remains ongoing, and we continue to be in contact with Danielle’s family. At this time, there are no further updates we can provide.”

Danielle has long, dark purple hair, according to the police bulletin her family has been sharing in the Toronto area and online. She is 5-foot-3 tall.

Her hair may have changed, her family told CTV News, but she is recognizable by her tattoos. According to the bulletin, she has a flower on her left wrist, wings on her neck, the word “trouble” on her left forearm and “queen” on her right forearm.

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