TAYLOR ROUSH - 15 yo Spring Hill FL

Deputies search for missing girl, 15


Taylor Roush

SPRING HILL - The 15-year-old girl has been missing since Saturday and deputies are asking the public for assistance.

Taylor Roush, a student at Weeki Wachee High School, is listed as a runaway, according to a Hernando County Sheriff's report.

A public record search showed her mother lives at 7435 Toucan Trail. A
message left for her Tuesday morning has not been answered.

Deputies are investigating and searching.

"We would ask anyone in our community and school to come forward and
help the authorities locate her," said Weeki Wachee Principal Dennis
McGeehan.

McGeehan was made aware of the missing girl Monday by a deputy
assigned to the school. He said students were notified about it shortly
thereafter.

Some of Roush's classmates and friends have come forward with information, said McGeehan.
Detectives working the case have been in contact with the girl's mother, said Cpl. Wendy McGinnis, a sheriff's spokeswoman.
"The missing juvenile is in good health and not believed to be in any
danger," she said. "The detectives are tracking down friends in attempt
to locate her."


Anyone with information is asked to contact the Deputy Brian Schneider at 352-754-6830.
http://www2.hernandotoday.com/content/2011/aug/30/301402/deputies-search-for-missing-girl-15/

Published: August 31, 2011
Updated: 05:01 pm

SPRING HILL - Kate Roush has waded through a mixture of emotions during the past four days.
First there was panic. That was followed by sadness. Now there's anger.
Her teenage daughter should have been found. Someone among her large
circle of friends must know where she is, she said. She can't understand
why the Hernando County Sheriff's Office and regional media outlets
seem so indifferent about a missing child case.
Taylor, 15, a student at Weeki Wachee High School, sneaked out of the
house late Saturday or early Sunday. Because she left home willingly,
it changes how law enforcement investigates or prioritizes it, Roush
said. Television news outlets won't air stories about runaways. That's
what one news station told her.
Roush's daughter is missing school. She can't drive. She took with her a book bag and her 6-month-old kitten, Puma.
Taylor hasn't contacted her family. Her friends are worried. Their parents are worried.
"I don't think she realizes what she's doing and how it's affecting everybody," Roush said.
Roush's emotions reached a peak after her 6-year-old twins were
brought to her house by their father. When she saw them home, she began
weeping, she said. She asked them to promise her they wouldn't ever run
away.
Roush said she can't log in to her Taylor's Facebook homepage, but
can view it as a visitor. She has seen only one posting in her
daughter's name stating she is safe.
"I'm not convinced it's her," said Roush. She suspects a few of
Taylor's friends have access to the page. Anyone could have put it
there, she said.
Roush started noticing a change in her daughter's personality in April, soon after her 15th birthday.
"She pulled back from me," she said. "She didn't want to tell me as much."
Taylor was less enthusiastic about spending time with family. Her
father wasn't part of her life growing up and that might have caused a
strain, Roush said.
The teen also spends a lot of time on her iPod. She listens to music
and watches YouTube clips. She frequently texts and posts on Facebook.
Taylor's friends and their parents have Facebook pages. Their walls
are saturated with comments about the girl's disappearance. Some pages
include the image of a flier her mother and her friends have been
handing out to people all over town.
Rosemary Martin, of Spring Hill, is a family acquaintance and is
among those posting images and messages about Taylor via the Internet.
She's baffled the only people working to find Taylor are her mother and
friends. More needs to be done beyond the confines of Facebook to get
the word out, she said.
"I understand there are many runaways, but I feel if the media have
time for stories about pets, they should make time for the missing
kids," Martin said. "I would think that is what the community finds more
important."

Cpl. Wendy McGinnis, a sheriff's spokeswoman, said detectives are still following leads.
If the juvenile remains missing for longer than 30 days, the
investigation is forwarded to the major case unit, according to agency
policy.
Roush said she makes rules and demands her children follow them.
Taylor has wanted to date, but her mother won't allow her to go out with
someone 17 or older. If she meets a boy and wishes to go out with him,
Roush insists on meeting his parents.
"She basically doesn't like my rules," she said.
The isolation and interest in boys didn't seem unusual for a 15-year-old girl, Roush said.
It wasn't until the day she disappeared that some warning signs started to show.
Roush said she took her daughter to a Spring Hill skate park that
morning to be with friends. When she returned two hours later, her
daughter was gone.
Taylor called her mother on her cell phone and told her she had walked to a nearby store and asked her to come get her.
When Roush asked where she went and why, Taylor didn't provide an
acceptable answer. She told her daughter when she dropped her off at the
park, that's where she expected her to stay until it was time to go.
Roush told her she wouldn't be taking her to the park again and then told her to hand over her iPod.
Taylor had a paranoid expression on her face and reluctantly handed over the device. There was no yelling afterward.
By 1 a.m. the following morning, Taylor had sneaked out of the house and still hasn't been seen by her family.
Roush said she checked the iPod and noticed she had uploaded items she wasn't allowed to have.
She thinks maybe part of her daughter's motivation for running away
was to delay the consequences from having the inappropriate materials on
her iPod.
Roush said she guessed Taylor was gone by 1 a.m. because Roush's
boyfriend was awake watching a Tampa Bay Buccaneers preseason game that
night and heard a noise coming from the girl's room. He assumed she was
using the bathroom.
Taylor was quiet enough not to spook the family's two dogs. They
almost always bark when someone is at the door or when they hear noises
coming from outside the house, Roush said.
Because Taylor is known to sleep late on Sundays, her mother didn't
check on her until after she returned from the store that afternoon. By 3
p.m., she realized Taylor was gone, she said.
Since Taylor's disappearance, Roush discovered her daughter had a
second Facebook page she didn't know about. She also found out she had a
boyfriend in Pasco County. She has contacted him and his parents and
none seems to know where Taylor is staying.
Shurrie Kurman, of Homosassa, has a daughter Taylor's age and the two
are close friends. She said was stunned when she heard the news.
"My daughter's worried," Kurman said. "She knows her friends and they
don't know anything … She could be with someone she met online and she
could be in danger."
Taylor had given Kurman a good impression. She said her daughter's
friend turns her nose up at certain bad behaviors, especially drug
abuse, and seemed intelligent beyond her years.
"She's been at our house many times and she's a good girl and a smart
kid," she said. "I know she's not someone who gets into trouble.
(Katie) is a good parent. She's strict, but not overly strict."
Taylor has long brown hair with blonde highlights. She stands 5 feet
tall and weighs about 115 pounds. She might be wearing black,
rectangular glasses.
Roush is passing out as many fliers as she can in areas where her
daughter might have visited. Hundreds already have been distributed.
She is passing them out at intersections in proximity to where some
of Taylor's closest friends live. On Wednesday, she was at the corner of
Pinehurst and Spring Hill drives.
"The more time goes by, I'm just getting mad," Roush said. "I'm very worried. I wish she was just call."

Anyone with information about Taylor Roush's whereabouts is encouraged to contact Deputy Brian Schneider at 352-754-6830.
http://www2.hernandotoday.com/content/2011/aug/31/311701/mother-wants-help-in-her-search-for-teen-daughter/

SPRING HILL One of Taylor Roush's friends called detectives to let them know
where she was staying – under the same roof.
Lt. Cinda Moore, a spokeswoman with the Hernando County Sheriff's
Office, said authorities were dispatched to Roush's friend's house
Thursday night and found the 15-year-old teen who had been missing for five days.
Roush, a student at Weeki Wachee High School, left her Toucan Trail
home last weekend without notifying family and friends, said her mother, Kate Roush.
"She's doing fine," Roush said Friday morning. "I'm happy. I'm very relieved."
She said her daughter returned to school the day after she was found
and was expected to apologize to her friends and thank everyone for their efforts to find her.
Weeki Wachee Principal Dennis McGeehan said he and the student body
were told Monday about Taylor Roush's disappearance. Some students came
forward with information, he said.
Several of the girl's friends and their parents were posting messages
on Facebook asking for people to be on the lookout. At least two local
radio stations aired missing person announcements and articles ran in
Hernando Today and on TBO.com.
For several days in a row, Kate Roush was standing along street
corners passing out hundreds of fliers asking for the public's help in locating her daughter.
She declined to speak specifically about where her daughter had been staying.
On her Facebook page, Roush said she hopes people don't see her
daughter as a "bad kid," but someone who is going through a tough time.
http://www2.hernandotoday.com/content/2011/sep/02/021236/missing-spring-hill-teen-found-in-pasco/