Radio Station Helps Effort To Find Missing Miramar Teen
MIRAMAR (CBSMiami) – Family and friends of a missing Miramar teen hit the South Florida radio airwaves Tuesday morning, seeking help to find her.
Radio station 99 Jamz broadcast live from Washington Park Community Center to spread the word about 17-year-old Naketa Leiba.
The community center, at 5199 Pembroke Road, has become a type of headquarters for the search for Naketa, who disappeared while walking home from school on Wednesday, February 1st.
Naketa's parents passed out missing person's fliers once again and made a plea for their daughter's safe return.
They have vowed not to give up until she is found.
The day she disappeared without a trace, Naketa was supposed to walk home from her bus stop in the 6800 block of SW 34th Street, but she never made it. Her mother, Sharon Leiba, said she had two brief phone conversations with her daughter that afternoon. The second one was strange, she said.
"'Yeah, I'm on the way' and I heard like a crackling, like the phone fell," Sharon Leiba said.
Her parents now fear the worst.
"Right now someone is having her and abusing her at this point in time," said Naketa's father Michael Leiba. "Every time I put down my head, I hear her screaming in my head."
The Leibas say said last year a man in a car stalked her several times when she walked home from her school bus stop.
Police have not said if these incidents are related to Leiba's disappearance.
Police have opened a missing persons investigation on Naketa, but have not ruled out the possibility that she may have run away.
Naketa's mother Sharon said her daughter didn't run away. She said the teen was finishing her senior year at South Broward High and was focused on taking her SATs.
"She was not looking to run away," said Leiba, "We're planning for graduation, we're planning for prom."
On South Broward's campus word traveled fast about Leiba's disappearance.
"I know a lot of people who were friends with her," said Caylee Garcia, "And they're really worried about it."
Sharon Leiba had a message for whoever is holding her daughter.
"Know that she has a family that loves her, she has family in Jamaica that's crying for her, family in New York that's crying for her and they just want her to come home," said Leiba.
If you've seen Leiba or have any information on her whereabouts you're asked to call the Miramar Police Department.
