Authorities are searching for a 16-year-old girl who was last seen at her South Carolina home more than 10 days ago.
The Aiken County Sheriff’s Office is asking the public for help in finding Briana Yow, who went missing “shortly before midnight” on April 5, according to a news release issued by the agency on Monday, April 13.
That night, Yow left her home in Aiken and was seen entering a car with “an unknown person,” the sheriff’s office said.
She is considered a runaway, according to authorities.
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The Aiken County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately return an inquiry or request for comment from Us Weekly on Thursday, April 16.
Yow is described as 5-foot-3, weighing about 116 pounds and had been wearing a black tank top with black pants at the time of her disappearance, according to the agency.
“Briana is known to change the color of her hair frequently” and “also has a tattoo of a butterfly behind her right ear,” the sheriff’s office said.
Authorities did not indicate whether Yow is believed to be in danger.
The sheriff’s office asks anyone with information on Yow’s location to call the agency at 803-642-1761.
The National Center for Missing and Endangered, Inc., a non-profit organization that raises awareness and works with law enforcement on missing persons cases, also shared an alert on the Aiken teen’s disappearance.
Aiken is located in western South Carolina, about a 55-mile drive southwest from Columbia, the state’s capital.
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Columbia is home to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division’s Missing Person Information Center, which is a “central repository for information regarding missing persons and missing and exploited children, with special emphasis on missing children.”
The center assists local, state and federal authorities in finding individuals considered missing.
There are 293 missing persons cases in South Carolina as of April 16, according to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.
Throughout the U.S., as well as all U.S. territories, there are 26,350 people considered missing as of April 16, NamUs statistics show.
In Florida, a missing 17-year-old girl who had been considered a runaway was recently located inside a convicted sex offender’s closet, according to authorities, Us previously reported.
The Polk County Sheriff’s Office arrested the man, Alexis Diaz-Toledo, on several charges, including sex offender failure to comply with registration requirements, interfering with custody of a minor, sheltering a minor without notifying a parent, and providing false information to a law enforcement officer in a missing person investigation, the agency said on Monday, April 14.
