Cellphone of Missing California Teen Sierra LaMar Yields No Leads
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Ryan McVay/Thinkstock(SANTA CLARA, Calif.) — The search continues for Sierra LaMar, the Northern California teen who mysteriously disappeared on her way to school last week.
Authorities say there have been no new leads in the case and an analysis of her cellphone, found about a mile from her school bus stop, has yielded no clues, according to a press release issued by the Santa Clara Sheriff’s office on Wednesday.
A search and rescue team found the 15-year-old’s phone Saturday night alongside the roadway, about a mile away from her home in Morgan Hills, in the opposite direction of her bus stop, Sgt. Jose Cordoza told ABC News.
The charger for the teen’s cellphone was found in her room at home, and the phone looked as if it had been tossed.
Authorities and LaMar’s family were hopeful that the phone could lead them to the girl. But according to the press release, ”Forensic examinations of Sierra’s cell phone and computer have not revealed information beneficial to Sierra’s disappearance.”
“I can’t imagine Sierra without her cellphone,” Sierra’s mother, Marlene LaMar, told ABC News after the phone was found. ”That’s when it became a harsh reality.”
Over 150 tips have been called in to authorities, but none have yielded new leads in the case, authorities said.
Cordoza told ABC News that police are regarding LaMar’s disappearance as a missing person’s case.
”There is no information leading us to believe she purposely ran away,” he said. ”On the other hand we don’t have information or evidence associating a crime with her being missing.”
Sierra’s father, Steve LaMar, told ABC News he has no reason to believe she was planning on running away. He said there was “nothing out of the ordinary,” about her behavior leading up to her disappearance. He spoke to her last Thursday evening and she even asked him to make her a hair appointment for the next weekend — something he says she would never miss.
Marlene LaMar became worried after her daughter didn’t return home from school last Friday.
“I was worried when I came home and she wasn’t here,” Marlene LaMar told ABC News. ”That’s when my adrenaline, that fear kicked in. That’s when a mother has that instinct that something isn’t quite right here.”
They reached out to the teen’s friends, but they grew more concerned when one friend said Sierra wasn’t in class earlier that day. They decided to contact authorities around 5 p.m. Friday, after her high school sent them an e-mail saying she didn’t show up for school at all that day.
Marlene LaMar told ABC News that her daughter’s bus driver said the teen never got on the bus the morning of her disappearance.
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