08/11/2025
"We love him and want him home and we just want him to be OK. As a family, we can't function normally. We're not doing well right now."
A teenager from North Carolina has been missing for nearly a week after vacationing in Florida and trying to reconnect with relatives, the local sheriff's office said.
The teen was visiting Englewood, Florida, with his mother and her fiancé and wanted to reconnect with relatives from his biological father's family, his aunt told ABC News. While he was unable to see his father, who is incarcerated, he made plans to see his cousins on that side of the family.
Within 25 minutes of leaving after his cousins picked him up for a three-hour drive to their house, he sent his mom a text: "Help me."
This was the last time his mother heard from him.
https://abcnews.visitlink.me/mTWTE_