10-Year-Old Indiana Girl Vanished 3 Days Ago; 'Optimistic' Police Seek Public's Help to Find Her
Indiana police are searching for a 10-year-old girl who disappeared from her home on Saturday and hasn’t been seen since.
A statewide Silver Alert was issued for Skylea Rayn Carmack, who was last seen on Aug. 31 around 4 p.m. by her six siblings and stepmother at their Gas City home.
“We are hoping she ran away and is somewhere we haven’t searched yet, but again the longer we go on, that is unlikely the scenario,” Indiana State Police Sgt. Tony Slocum tells PEOPLE. “We are asking for the public’s help.”
Slocum says the girl, who is home schooled, didn’t have a cell phone and possibly left carrying a pink backpack, a purple autism awareness blanket and a pillow.
She has run away before, he says, but “we checked the locations she had gone to previously but so far we haven’t found her.”
“We are still remaining optimistic until something changes,” he says. “All the scenarios are on the table and we are remaining optimistic until we have evidence to believe otherwise.”
Police have reviewed some video footage from area homes and so far she hasn’t been captured on any of the surveillance tapes.
“We are still analyzing those,” says Slocum.
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Skylea’s dad Kevin Carmack told FOX 59 that he believes his daughter ran away because she had been grounded.
“And it just went a little too far and she got stuck and now she’s just scared to come home cause she’s afraid now she is going to be in even more trouble,” he predicted.
Carmack said he wants his daughter to know that, “We’re not even mad at this point; we are just worried about her being OK just want her to come home,” he said.
He told the station he is trying to remain optimistic but fears she may have got lost “or she fell in one of these woods and she’s hurt and can’t get back out.”
Carmack is 5 feet tall, and weighs approximately 100 pounds. She has blonde hair and blue eyes and was wearing a black T-shirt with Mario and Luigi on it, black pants with a red design or cherries and teal high-tops.
Anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to contact Indiana State Police at 765-473-6666 or the Gas City Police Department at 765-674-2278 or 911.
