BATON ROUGE - The best friend of missing woman and mother Lyntell Washington says she is passionate, knowledgeable and trusting.

For more than 20 years, Melissa Mason has called Washington her friend and sister, spending holidays and important events together like the birth of their children.

Thursday morning, Mason got a phone call from Brookstown Middle School. The caller said Washington didn't show up to work.

"That's not like her, she's dependable," said Mason.

The last time the two friends spoke was Monday evening for about an hour.

"She was disappointed," Mason tells News Two. "She talked about her relationship and she talked about God."

Washington has been in a relationship with Robert Marks since early last year and is seven months pregnant with his child. Marks was arrested Friday, believed to have a close connection to the case. He's in jail accused of dropping off Washington's three year old daughter, who according to an arrest affidavit gave police chilling details on what possibly happened between Marks and Washington.

According to Mason, the two had already named their unborn daughter and had plans to move in together.

"He sounded like he was someone who was going to be apart of her life and the baby's life," she said.

Something shifted in their relationship last week. Mason says Marks stopped responding to text messages.

"She asked him to be a man of his word and I think he panicked," she said.

Police say a coworker of Marks and Washington told them she was threatening to expose their relationship to his wife who did not know about the baby.

The search for Washington was suspended Friday evening.