A teenage Virginia girl was last seen by her parents before being dropped off at a commuter rail station Saturday, but police later found her luggage in a nearby drainage ditch.
Authorities in Spotsylvania County say they are looking for 19-year-old Katelin Akens after the girl was supposed to arrive in Arizona Dec. 5, but never made it.
Katelin Akens missing poster (Via Spotsylvania Sheriff’s Office)
Akens’s mother Lisa Sullivan tells WTVR her family dropped the girl off at the Franconia-Springfield Metro station, where she would take the train to Reagan National Airport.
Sullivan says she received a text message from Katelin saying she made it to the plane, but found out later Katelin may not have sent the text.
“She texted and said she made it there, but we don’t know if that’s true,” Lisa Sullivan tells the TV station.
On Monday, Virginia Department of Transportation employees were working along the side of River Road in Spotsylvania, Va., where they found Akens’s luggage. Some of the girl’s clothes, along with cash and a cell phone were missing from the bags, NBC 12 Richmond reports.
Akens’s family tells NBC 12 she has never exhibited any behavior that would lead them to believe she left under her own free will.
“It’s just a waiting game to find out what comes next,” Sullivan tells the news station. “It’s horrible. You don’t know. You don’t know what’s gonna happen or what they’re gonna find. Hopefully she’s safe.”
The events surrounding Akens’s disappearance are so unusual, according to Spotsylvania County Sheriff Roger L. Harris, the department is launching a full investigation.
“The circumstances surrounding this case are suspicious enough to warrant our full investigate efforts, in attempting to locate Miss. Akens,” he says in a statement.
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