Mother Of Missing N.C. Teen Speaks Out
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A desperate search is underway for a missing girl. Her mom believes foul play may be involved, but police say there's no evidence of that.
Mike Hellgren spoke with her heartbroken mother.
The door was unlocked and the music was blaring. But there was no sign of Phylicia Barnes inside her family's apartment.
"My baby is not a runaway," said Janice Sallis, missing girl's mom.
Sallis is desperate for answers, as she held up pictures of her 16-year-old daughter Phylicia Barnes, who has been missing since Tuesday.
"I am an emotional wreck," Sallis said. "I don't even know what my gut is feeling because my emotions are all over the place."
Barnes lives in North Carolina. She was visiting family for the holidays, staying at an apartment complex behind Reisterstown Road Plaza when she disappeared.
"If she's alive, she's scared to death," Sallis said. "Anyone who gets joy out of that must be a sick, perverted individual."
Barnes is not familiar with Baltimore.
She took her wallet and a cell phone, but left money and credit cards.
"It appears she left on her own. It doesn't appear that there was any foul play at this point," said Major Clifton McWhite, Baltimore City Police Department. "This is a good kid, a good young girl--a straight-A student from North Carolina."
"We've had some tips," McWhite said. "However, they haven't panned out as we expected."
Tips include a false report that she was at a shelter in downtown Baltimore.
"It's like she has vanished in thin air, and no one knows where she's at," Sallis said. "Somebody knows where she's at, and I'm telling you right now, God's gonna get you."
Barnes was last seen wearing a hooded blue peacoat, a tan purse and turquoise thermal shirt. If you know anything, call police right away.
Barnes was such a good student that she was set to graduate high school early. She was looking into attending Towson University.
