JAZLYNN MORRELL - 15 yo - Cliffside Park NJ

It’s been more than a week since Mariela Souza saw her daughter,
15-year-old Jazlynn Morell. And she and police are intensifying their
search for the girl with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

COURTESY OF MARIELA SOUZA
Jazlynn Morell, 15, of Cliffside Park was reported missing on Aug. 25.

Even if the girl is a runaway, as recent signs point to, the way she did it
points to something — or someone — unusual entering the picture, says
Souza.
“For her not to contact us, not to call us, not to return home — my daughter
has never done this,” the 39-year-old Wheeler Avenue resident said.
Morell went missing early Aug. 25. Souza and Morell’s grandmother bid “the
baby of the family” goodnight around 12:30 a.m. When Souza woke at 4:30
a.m. to get ready for work, she checked in on her daughter. The bedroom
door was propped shut from the inside.
She pried it open to find an empty room. The window screens were ripped
open. Her daughter’s bed sheets and pillows were lying on the ground, a
short jump below the window. Jazlynn is scared of heights and wouldn’t
jump out on her own, Souza said. Someone must have helped her, someone
who she may have met online despite Souza’s effort to control Internet
and computer access, she added.
Since that day, Souza hasn’t been able to eat or sleep. She drives slowly,
turning her head left and right in search of her daughter. She passed
out pictures of her daughter at work and sent out an appeal for
information on Facebook.
“I need her face out there,” she said. “I need her picture out there.”
Jazlynn penned an angry note two days before her disappearance that complained
about being treated like a child and talked about going to Florida,
where her grandfather lives.
But the most recent clue Souza got was when she and her mother called or
sent text messages to every person on her daughter’s cell phone. One
person told her Jazlynn had talked about visiting New York City. But
Souza said her daughter shouldn’t know anyone who lives over there.
Borough police have looked for Jazlynn in New York City. They put out a
reverse-911 call on Monday asking area residents for information.
Alerts also have been sent to missing persons networks. They’re also
examining cellphone and online records to try to get more clues about
where Jazlynn could be, Detective Lt. Timothy Kelly of the Cliffside
Park Police Department said Tuesday.
“It’s any parent’s worst nightmare,” he said.
Souza’s worries are exacerbated because her daughter’s ADHD makes her scared of
being alone. She’ll also experience anxiety attacks if she feels she’s
cornered and-or has nowhere to go, Souza said.
Souza also is suspicious of others’ involvement because her daughter left so
many things she treasures. The brand-new Air Jordan sneakers and a
black and silver T-shirt with “Bunny Girl” she planned to wear on the
first day at school are still in her closet. The cats she babies still
roam the second-floor apartment. Plus, she was raised to check in with
her mother and warned of strangers.
“She’s in a place where she can’t get to me,” Souza said. “I know it. It’s a feeling.”

Missing: Jazlynn Morell

• Home
  

Have you seen Jazlynn Morell?


August 30th, 2009


Jazlynn is 15 and has been missing since August 25th, 2009. Jazlynn currently
lives in Cliffside Park, NJ but previously resided in Garfield, NJ. If
you have any information on her whereabouts, please contact either Lt.
Kelly with the Cliffside Police Department at (201) 945-3600 or Lt.
Donofrio with the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office at (201) 226-5521.

Running away from home isn't like it
used to be. Ask Jazlynn Morell, a 15-year-old from Cliffside Park. Soon
after she bolted her single mom's apartment, investigators with the
Bergen County Prosecutor's Office found her -- online.



With her mother's permission,
investigators monitored Morell's Internet use and tracked her down to a
public housing complex where she'd been staying in the southwest Bronx.




Bergen County Prosecutor John L.
Molinelli didn't say whether his investigators used Jazlynn's friends
to help smoke her out or simply pretended to be someone else themselves.

Her
mother, an aspiring criminologist, told an area newspaper she was
worried about what she characterized as Jazlynn's sudden disappearance
on Aug. 25.
Mariela Souza, a single mom who also has aa 19-year-old daughter, said
she was concerned because Jazlynn has attention-deficit hyperactivity
disorder -- although she never explained how that would have put the
teen in any danger.

She also didn't say whether Jazlynn had run
away before, how familiar she already was with the city, or assorted
other information an experienced interviewer would ask to determine how
dangerous a predicament the teen was in.

Souza suggested her
daughter might have been kidnapped, although a law enforcement source
with knowledge of the incident said there didn't appear to be evidence
of anything other than that the girl simply had trouble with her mom
and ran away.