MORGAN LUCERO - 16 yo - Tucson AZ

Father of missing teen: 'I can't even express what I'm feeling'
Tuesday, June 7th, 3:38 pm



(KOLD) - Over the last month or so, Morgan Lucero's family has
posted at least a thousand fliers all over town in search of the missing
girl. To date, the posters have generated a lot of phone calls, but
unfortunately no results.For whatever reason, it appears 16 year
old Morgan Lucero ran away from home. Maybe she was mad at her parents
or maybe she just wanted to take off with a boy. But not knowing what
happened to Morgan for sure is absolutely killing those who care about
her."Morgan's best quality is also her downfall--she's very naive
and trusting," says Maredith Romero, the missing teenager's mother. "I
fear every night when I go to sleep that she trusted the wrong person,
that someone said, 'Hey I can help you.'""And maybe she's fine,
maybe she's fine," says Morgan's father David Lucero. "But we just don't
know and it's scaring us to death."Since she went missing April
28th, there have been no phone calls or text messages from Morgan's cell
phone. No activity on her bank card, no status updates on her Facebook.
So what happened to this 16-year-old girl who seemed to have so much
going for her?The Pima County Sheriff's Department officially
lists Lucero's case as a runaway. "That's what her mother told us that
night (she was reported missing)," says Deputy Jason Ogan. "When a minor
runs away, that's one of those really tough situations."The
evening of April 28th Morgan was at a Tucson Padres game with her mother
and little brother. She certainly didn't look like a teenager in
crisis."We had a great time," her mother says. "You know we have
photos from that night and her and her brother are smiling and taking
pictures."Six hours later Morgan Lucero was gone. Vanished from her mother's home, quite literally without a trace.Morgan's
parents have been divorced for years. They've both gone through their
share of heartache. But nothing, not even the death of a loved one,
feels quite like this."To have a child just all of sudden disappear, it's heartbreaking," says Morgan's father. "I can't express what the feeling is.""I
just really miss her," Morgan's mother adds. "It's just been a really,
really hard time. You can't help it, but your mind wanders to the worst
place."If you have any information about Morgan Lucero or here
whereabouts, please call 911 or 88-Crime, the Pima County Attorney's
anonymous tip line.A reward up to one thousand dollars will go to the person whose tip leads to the safe return of this missing Tucson teen.http://marana-avravalley.kold.com/news/crime/father-missing-teen-i-cant-even-express-what-im-feeling/51686

Missing Teen a Living Nightmare for Parents

July 20, 2011 01:45 AM EDT

A missing teen is any parent's nightmare, and one family in
Tucson, Arizona is feeling the pain right now. A 16-year-old girl
vanished in the middle of the night, and nobody knows what happened to
her. This is strangely a lot like the case of Elizabeth Smart, one of
America's most prominent missing persons cases.Her name is Morgan Lucero
and she is 16 years old. Her mother awoke on the morning of April 29,
2011 to find her daughter gone, not sleeping in her bed as she was the
night before. Distraught, the family immediately reported the young girl
missing. However, because the young girl took a bag of clothing, her
cell phone and its charger, she is listed as "a willing runaway" and not
an abducted or endangered missing teen.It's been going on three
months since the disappearance of Morgan Lucero, and still nothing has
been heard of the girl. Nobody knows whether or not she's alive or dead,
and there are no leads in the case to refer to any persons of interest
as there are no signs of foul play, yet. Her phone records, powered by
Verizon, didn't offer any clues to her disappearance; neither did her
Facebook page nor any of her other documented activities. The teen's
cell phone has been turned off since her disappearance, so they cannot
ping and triangulate it to find her whereabouts. This, in and of itself,
is a disturbing revelation because most teens can't go more than five
minutes without checking on texts or their social networking apps on
their mobile devices. Her last phone call, made close to midnight on the
night she vanished, was to her boyfriend. The call only lasted around
10 seconds.So, even though Morgan's parents are divorced, they
have reunited and are pulling together to bring their missing daughter
home. They tell sources that she has absolutely no history of being a
troubled teenager. She isn't depressed and has never shown a desire to
run away. The 5'4" 100lb. teenager has lived a well-adjusted and happy
life even if her parents are divorced.Morgan Lucero will be 17 on
the 27th of this month, and a "Four Corners" search of Utah, Arizona,
Colorado and New Mexico will be coordinated for volunteer search
efforts. Hopefully, by then, the teenager will either come home
unharmed, or they will at least find something out about her
whereabouts.The family members of 16-year-old Morgan aren't the
only family suffering during this catastrophic situation. The National
Center for Missing and Exploited Kids alleges that around 800,000
children go missing in the United States every year. Since April, young
women, who aren't necessarily children but are students, have gone
missing, leaving their families in shock -- such as Holly Bobo, Lauren
Spierer and Michelle Le. A recent missing persons case was solved, but
at a heartbreaking cost. The body of 16-year-old Yashanee Vaughn was
discovered, after missing since March.Hopefully, this beautiful young woman hasn't fallen prey to a scenario like this.
http://news.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474979679453

At 3 a.m. on April 29, Morgan Lucero’s mother awoke to find her
16-year-old daughter missing, launching a nightmare that still
hasn’t ended for the Tucson family.
Morgan isn’t from Sahuarita, but a poster on display for weeks at
Sertino’s Coffee & Ice Cream in Rancho Sahuarita Marketplace
has introduced the young woman and her plight to the community.
The photo looking back at customers is of a 5-foot, 4-inch teenager
who weighs about 100 pounds, with brown eyes and dark brown hair.
It’s also the photo of a young woman now listed on the registry of
the National Center for Missing and Exploited Kids. According to
the group, 800,000 children are reported missing each year, more
than 2,000 each day.Morgan’s parents have been divorced for nine years and she was
spending two days at her mother’s home in northwest Tucson when she
went missing.“She said goodnight at midnight and when I got up at 3 a.m. she was
gone,” Maredith Romero said. “I called the Sheriff’s Department and
9-1-1 and they came to the house immediately and took a
report.”However, because Morgan is 16 and left with a bag of clothes and
her cell phone and charger, she is considered a willing
runaway.Pima County Sheriff’s Department Public Information Officer Dawn
Barkman said Morgan is listed as a “missing juvenile.” There was no
evidence of foul play, abduction or being “endangered.”
Morgan’s father, David Lucero, obtained a record of cell phone
calls his daughter made prior to her disappearance. Family members
checked every number Morgan called before April 29. Everything was
cross referenced with no clues. Verizon could not track the phone
via GPS because her phone had been powered down.
No unusual or suspicious messages were found on her computer; her
Facebook account vanished.Lucero said his daughter’s grades had slipped at Mountain Rose
Academy in Tucson, and on Jan. 1, she went to live with her
grandparents in Camp Verde, north of Phoenix. Her grades
improved.Lucero said he would drive to Camp Verde two or three times a month
and spend the weekend in Phoenix with his daughter or bring her
back to Tucson where she divided her time between parents.
“It’s not like we sent her to her grandparents and forgot about
her. I was making round trips almost every weekend,” Lucero
said.Though Morgan’s parents are divorced they are united in their
efforts with her upbringing and agreed not to allow her to smoke
until she was 18, which did not sit well with their daughter.
The last anyone heard from Morgan was at 11:13 p.m. on April 29,
when she called her boyfriend. The call lasted 10 seconds, Lucero
said.There is no history of depression, rebelliousness, low self-esteem,
lying, stealing or threats of suicide. Just typical teen stuff,
Romero said.“She has a good life; she had a good life... she doesn’t look like
a teen in crisis. If she came home now we’d hug her, kiss her and
not punish her. We’d wait to talk,” Lucero said.
Morgan’s mother added, “And we’d take her to her favorite
restaurant.”They said not knowing her whereabouts is killing them.
There will be a four-corner search in Arizona, Utah, Colorado and
New Mexico on Aug. 27, Morgan’s 17th birthday. Anyone with
information is asked to call 88-CRIME.
http://www.gvnews.com/news/missing-daughter-is-parents-nightmare/article_30e29680-b278-11e0-ad8c-001cc4c002e0.html

nothing new 4-9-12