ST. LOUIS – The family of Marquisha Williams is making a plea to the public to help find the missing mother. This comes after the father of her four children was arrested in Wisconsin following the couple’s disappearance last week.

“I’m trying not to cry, but we need help. We need everybody’s help,” Terrance Chavis, Marquisha’s stepfather, said. “We are all hurting. I have a hard time trying to hold up my head. I didn’t even want to talk, cause I knew this was going to happen. Listen; please help us.”

The search has intensified on both sides of the Mississippi River, with dozens of volunteers pitching in.

Police were originally looking for Williams and the father of her children, Trent Ivy.

Ivy was arrested over the weekend, but Williams is nowhere to be found.

“We miss her. Her kids miss her. They most definitely miss her. Her baby needs his mom. He’s not even two years old yet. He can’t sleep at night,” Norvette Chavis, Marquisha’s mother, said.

Regina Market, Marquisha’s cousin, said the family could not celebrate Christmas.

“We could not celebrate it because we miss our cousin. We miss her. Just imagine her kids; what they are going through. We need her home,“ she said.

At present, Ivy has been charged with use of a dangerous weapon, resisting an officer, and fleeing from an officer in a vehicle. He has not been charged with anything related to Williams’ disappearance.

The couple’s 11-year-old son said he heard his parents arguing in the car on the morning of his mother’s disappearance.

Family members said there was a history of domestic violence.

Williams was supposed to be at work at 7 a.m. Wednesday, but she has not been seen since she dropped her kids off at daycare centers that morning.