SPOTSYLVANIA COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) – The Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office is asking for the public’s help in locating missing 19-year-old Katelin Akens.
“It’s scary. You don’t know what to think. Where is she?” said Lisa Sullivan, Katelin’s mother.
Sullivan says she dropped her daughter off at her stepdad’s home in Spotsylvania County so he could take her to the airport to catch a flight back to Arizona.
Sullivan says the teen’s stepdad told her Akens decided she wanted to go to Springfield Mall first. She then planned to take the Franconia-Springfield metro to Reagan National Airport.
At this point, police cannot confirm that Akens left Spotsylvania.
Investigators are working to review any surveillance video from several locations to determine where Akens was and when.
On Monday, Akens’ luggage was discovered abandoned in a drainage ditch on River Road in Spotsylvania County near the Fredericksburg city limit.
“Her phone charger, her wallet, it still had her ID, her credit cards, cash, her old glasses and her old plane ticket,” said Katelin’s sister, Gabrielle Akens.
Akens family tells 8News that her cell phone goes straight to voice mail when they call it.
“It’s very unusual. She texts me millions of times a day, calls us. It’s unusual for her not to text us,” said Gabrielle Akens.
Captain Jeff Pearce with the Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office calls her disappearance suspicious.
“We’re dealing with this as a missing person right now, but again, suspicious circumstances. We are giving it 100 percent of our investigative effort,” said Captain Pearce.
Anyone with information that can help detectives in this case is asked to called the Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office at 540-582-7115.
They can also call Spotyslvania Crime Solvers at 1-800-928-5822 or 1-540-582-5822 or text a tip by sending SEE911 to CRIMES (274637).
Stay with 8News for updates on this developing story.
