UPDATE: The 12-year-old Bronx girl who vanished after a FaceTime call with her mother on Monday was found safe, the NYPD said early Thursday morning.
Original story:
THE BRONX – The tearful mother of a 12-year-old girl, who vanished after doing a FaceTime call with her mom Monday, begged the girl’s friends not to call the child’s phone, as police try to pinpoint the missing girl’s whereabouts.
“Right now, the focus is on the ‘A’ and ‘C’ lines, because that’s where we’re getting a lot of pings,” the mother, Lavayisha Burns, said during an emotional FaceBook Live.
“Detectives are working very hard; they’re doing their job,” the mother added, as her voice shook.
“Please don’t call her phone,” the mother cried. “Calling the phone is messing it up,” referring to the police investigation.
The initial NYPD notice about the girl’s disappearance said the child was last seen at 8:15 a.m. Monday leaving her home on Stebbins Avenue in the Bronx.
Burns told PIX11 News her child attends 6th grade classes at Middle School 301 in the Bronx.
The mom said her daughter often goes to an after-school program near McKinley Houses but wasn’t going Monday afternoon, instead telling her mother she wanted to meet friends.
“She FaceTimed me at 3:45,” Lavayisha Burns told PIX11 News about the last conversation she had with her daughter on Monday afternoon.
Then they texted, the mom said. She knew her daughter had met up with her friends and told her she needed to come back home. The last text was at 4:16 p.m., the mom noted.
“She never replied back,” she said.
The 12-year-old is described as a slim 5 feet tall, weighing 100 pounds. She was last seen wearing a black, waist-length jacket with white letters “APPE” on it, black pants and black Uggs.
The mother said her daughter wears her hair in “criss cross” knots and was also carrying a pink Calvin Klein purse.
The missing girl is the oldest of three children, her mother said.
Lavayisha Burns said she was going to pick up her younger children from school when she texted her daughter to come home.
The mom said there was no history of her daughter running away, adding if they ever had words, her daughter would sometimes go to her grandmother’s house in the Bronx.
Lavayisha Burns ended her FaceBook Live appeal by crying, “Find my baby. That’s it.”
Editor’s Note: This post was updated to remove the missing girl’s name and photo after she was found.
