HOMOSASSA, Fla. Feb 25, 2005 ? The family of a 9-year-old girl who disappeared from her bedroom pleaded for her return Friday, calling her an "angel" who needs to be home. The father and grandparents of Jessica Marie Lunsford cried as they described a girl who they say would never run away.
"I want my daughter home," said Mark Lunsford, who discovered the third-grader missing Thursday morning. "If there is anything anybody knows, there are a lot of numbers you can call. Help me find my daughter and bring her home."
Jessica lives in the house with her father and his parents. Her father told authorities he had returned Thursday morning from a girlfriend's home and was getting ready for work when he realized his daughter's alarm clock was sounding and she wasn't there.
Man Cleared to Remove Wife's Feeding Tube
Florida Family Pleads for Girl's Return
Mystery Witness Emerges in Jackson Case
The clothes she had laid out for school were still in place and none of her shoes were gone.
Citrus County Sheriff Jeff Dawsy said Lunsford's story checked out. A search for the girl continued Friday; a national missing child alert was issued.
Jessica's grandmother Ruth Lunsford said the girl is a well-mannered child "who doesn't roam."
"When God made Jessie, he made an angel," her grandmother said. "We have always called her Princess."
Officials stopped short of putting out an Amber Alert. Florida's Amber Plan is activated when there is a detailed vehicle or abductor description to disseminate through broadcasters and highway information signs.
Mark Lunsford said his daughter had had little contact with her mother, who Dawsy said had been located in Ohio and was being interviewed by the FBI. Michael Brooks, an FBI spokesman in Cincinnati, would not comment on what the FBI discussed with Angela Bryant but said she had not been arrested or detained.
Bryant, 31, of Morrow, Ohio, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Friday that she has no idea where her daughter is. She said she hasn't seen Jessica in four years, and that Mark Lunsford, who has legal custody, repeatedly refused to let her see the girl.
Bryant, who has remarried and has a 5-year-old son, said she hadn't known Mark Lunsford and Jessica had moved to Florida until seeing news reports Friday about the girl's disappearance.
Homosassa, along the Gulf Coast, is about 60 miles north of Tampa.
*** AMBER ALERT ***
by pr_capone 5 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse
-
pr_capone
-
pr_capone
Here is her pic
-
gumby
Thanks bro. What a sad situation for all.
Gumby
-
pr_capone
bttt
-
pr_capone
bttt
-