More than two months have passed since Martha Canfield last saw her great niece, 17-year-old Erin Raquel Martinez, who disappeared May 25 while the family attended services at Woodland Hills Baptist Church in Longview.
"I thought Erin was with her younger sisters, but they said she was not with them," Canfield said recently from her home outside Hallsville . "We looked for her all over the church and asked everyone around if they had seen her. But there was no sign of her."
Erica Martinez, 15, said she last saw her sister at the church with her friend, Dia Stephens.
Erica said she lost sight of Erin and Dia until later that day when Dia reappeared without her sister.
"I asked her on Facebook later if she knew where Erin was, and she asked me why I was asking her that," Erica said. "She must have been with someone because she activated her Facebook the other day. She would tell me everything and did say that she didn't want to be here a lot."
Erin had been on a weekend "pass" from Nexus Recovery Center in Dallas when she went missing. Canfield had taken her to the rehabilitation facility to help treat the girl's addiction of substance abuse.
"She needs help," Canfield said. "She's very unstable and believes everyone is against her. She ran away in January but came back that same day. She has never run off for this long."
According to Erica, the only items that Erin took with her when she left were a bag of makeup and the clothes she was wearing.
"She was wearing a grey sweater with an orange shirt and jeans," Erica said.
Lack of information
After she filed a report with the Harrison County Sheriff's Office on May 26, Canfield said she expected to hear updates from the department on the case. However, she said she didn't have any contact with investigators until two weeks ago.
The Harrison County Sheriff's Office issued a statement July 29 asking for help in locating Erin.
"They called me and asked me when did Erin come back? I told them Erin never came back," she said.
Lt. Jay Webb, spokesman for the Harrison County Sheriff's Office, said his office delayed the release of information regarding the girl's disappearance "due to the family's belief that she would return home."
Webb said Efrain Caban, the deputy who met with Canfield on May 26, is no longer working with the Harrison County Sheriff's Office.
"It should have been followed up on by deputy Caban, but I don't believe there was any negligence involved," he said. "We found that this was an open case with no resolution and we have been working on it since the beginning of June. We don't have any indication that she's in danger and we are tracking her down to make sure she's safe and see if she needs to be in rehab for treatment."
Webb said his office has contacted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to aid in the search for Martinez.
"We have had a few calls regarding her location, but she is not at any location we have checked," he said. "The most recent information was that she had made her way to San Antonio to a relative's home, but that was not good information either."
Dangerous mindset
Canfield, in the process of adopting Erin, Erica and their youngest sister, Maria, said she also reached out to a woman in Frost`, whom had served as a foster parent for the girls.
"Erin kept saying that she wanted to go to her foster family in Frost," she said. "But I was told she wasn't there."
Chuck Foreman, founder and CEO of the Center for Search & Investigations For Missing Children, said Thursday that law enforcement agencies can hinder their investigations of missing children when they consider them runaways.
"It's a mindset and it puts the community into a non-worry mode," he said. "It needs to be said that it is a missing child, period. The dangers are still out there."
Foreman said his organization has helped find 450 missing children since its inception 2010.
However, he said he has also seen the worst outcome.
"We've found children deceased," Foreman said. "We have to understand that it doesn't matter how a missing child left. We need to react accordingly."
Data
Statistics from the United States Department of Justice show that about 2,100 children are reported missing every day.
"My heart is really broken because I don't know what to do," Canfield said. "We haven't heard anything and don't know where she is at."
Erin Martinez is described as 5 feet, six inches tall and weighing 130 pounds. She has brown eyes and long, dark hair that was dyed red at the time she went missing.
Anyone with information can contact the Harrison County Sheriff's Office at (903) 923-4000.
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LostNMissing Inc.
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LostNMissing Inc., is an all-volunteer national tax-exempt organization under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (the "code") and qualifies as a public supported organization under Sections, or Categories: P99 (Human Services - Multipurpose and Other N.E.C.); M99 (Other Public Safety, Disaster Preparedness, and Relief N.E.C.); I01 (Alliance/Advocacy Organizations). LostNMissing is organized and incorporated under the laws of the State of New Hampshire. We never charge a fee for our services.
LostNMissing Inc.
www.lostnmissing.com
LostNMissing Inc., is an all-volunteer national tax-exempt organization under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (the "code") and qualifies as a public supported organization under Sections, or Categories: P99 (Human Services - Multipurpose and Other N.E.C.); M99 (Other Public Safety, Disaster Preparedness, and Relief N.E.C.); I01 (Alliance/Advocacy Organizations). LostNMissing is organized and incorporated under the laws of the State of New Hampshire. We never charge a fee for our services.
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