http://www.wistv.com/story/19374438/foul-play-suspected-in-teens-disappearanceInvestigators say they suspect a teen who has been missing for seven days did not take off on her own.
15-year-old Gabbiee Swainson disappeared last Saturday. Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott thinks she was abducted.
"I don't feel like she left on her own," said Lott. "And that's why we've put so much on this case. I don't feel like she left on her own. This is totally out of character for her. This is not the type of girl that would leave on her own, so that's why we're treating it as we are."
Richland County Sheriff's Deputies are working with the FBI to search for the Swainson. on Friday, investigators announced the reward for information in the case is up to $6,000.
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Lott says the phone is the only thing missing from the Swainson home other than the teenager.
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http://abcnews.go.com/US/gabrielle-...south-carolina/story?id=17078903#.UDlM2qPF-7sThe FBI has joined the search for a South Carolina cheerleader who vanished without a trace from her bedroom.
Gabrielle Swainson, 15, disappeared between 3:30 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. last Saturday, during the time her mother was at work, police said.
When mother Elvia Swainson returned home Saturday morning, Gabrielle's bed was empty.
"I grabbed my phone and started calling her number. The number rang a couple of times then it stopped," Swainson said.
Several more attempts to reach her daughter went straight to voicemail, she said.
Although there were no signs of foul play, investigators believe the teen's disappearance was not voluntary.
"Her purse was still there with her charger for her phone in it and all the ingredients of her purse like her wallet and her credit card, everything is still there," said Chandra Cleveland-Jennings, a private investigator hired by Swainson.
Cleveland-Jennings said there has been no activity on the teen's phone since her disappearance. Police have not said whether they have been able to locate a signal.
Gabrielle missed the first day of her sophomore year of high school on Thursday at Ridge View High School, where she had just made the junior varsity cheerleading squad.
"I don't know what has happened. I don't know how it happened and this is really a nightmare. It really is," Elvia Swainson said. "It's the worst situation a parent could be in."
http://www.thestate.com/2012/08/24/2410793/fbi-joins-missing-teen-case.html#.UDlOlqPF-7sEarly Saturday morning before dawn, Elvia Swainson said, she left her house in the North Crossing neighborhood near the Village at Sandhill mall for a few hours to catch up on some backed-up work at her office. She is a workers compensation claims adjuster, and it’s difficult to do all the interviews and write up reports in an eight-hour day, she said.
Just before she left her house, about 3:45 a.m., she went to her daughter’s second-story bedroom and placed the girl’s iPhone in her hand, Swainson said.
“She was sleeping. I shook her and said, ‘Gabbiee, Gabbiee, wake up, I’m about to run out and do some work, and I’ll be back.’” The phone was so Gabrielle could call if she needed to.
“My speculation is maybe somebody saw me leave and came to the door right after I left and started ringing the doorbell or something. She may have come down with her cell phone in her hand and opened the door, thinking it was me,” Swainson said.
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When she vanished, Gabrielle was apparently dressed only in pajamas and was clutching her iPhone. All her clothes, her purse and wallet with identification was still in the house. Police won’t comment on any locater signals they may have received from her GPS-equipped cell phone.
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has sent a consultant. By federal law, the Center can get certain information from various databases more quickly than local law enforcement, Lott said.
That group and the FBI “bring capabilities we don’t have,” Lott said.
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Swainson left the house at 3:45 a.m. and was back between 7:15 and 7:30 a.m., she said.
When she entered the door, she heard her daughter’s alarm clock.
“I’m like, Gabbiee, Gabbiee, you hear that alarm going off?’”
When her daughter didn’t answer, she ran upstairs, didn’t see Gabrielle, panicked, then ran from room to room, yelling her name. She called her daughter’s phone and it rang and rang before going to voice mail. She ran outside, talked to neighbors and then called neighbors.
The clock, she calculated later, had been set to go off at 5:25 a.m. So whatever happened to Gabrielle happened between 3:45 a.m. and 5:25 a.m.
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Lott declined Thursday to answer when asked if his detectives had a suspect.
But the sheriff did say that no family member is a suspect.
Gabrielle’s mother has hired a private investigator, Chandra Cleveland-Jennings, a 20-year veteran of the Richland County Sheriff’s Department. Cleveland-Jennings coordinates with the sheriff’s department, helps Swainson pursue leads and works with citizens groups. They’ve handed out more than 7,000 missing person leaflets in the northeast Richland County and Elgin areas.
Gabrielle’s father, Alvin Thompson, a long-distance truck driver, came down from his home in Virginia on Monday to do what he could.
“You never think this could happen to your family,” he said. “It always happens to somebody else.”
Swainson blinked back tears. “I try not to think negative at all. I need her to come home.”
Help us find Gabbiee on FB: https://www.facebook.com/findGabbiee
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