Police on Thursday released images of a man they want to identify in the hunt for missing Ohio teen Madison Bell.
Madison Bell, 18, was last seen leaving her home in Ross County on Sunday morning to go to a tanning salon. Her car was later found in a church parking lot, unlocked and with the missing teen’s phone inside and the keys still in the ignition.
The Highland County Sheriff’s Office said the male may have information regarding the 18-year-old’s disappearance.
Police say the man ‘is attached’ to a white sedan with California plates ‘believed to have been at the location Maddie left her car at.’
A church worker told police the white four-door vehicle they saw in the lot stood out as there were no services due to COVID-19.
They said a white male stood near the vehicle, which they believed to have California license plates. The image released by police was taken at a nearby business.
Police on Thursday released this image of a man they want to identify in the hunt for missing Ohio teen Madison Bell. Police say the man ‘is attached’ to a white sedan with California plates ‘believed to have been at the location Maddie left her car at’
Madison Bell is described as a white female, weighing 120lbs and standing at 5 feet 6 inches in height, with brown eyes and brown hair. She has grey contact lenses, a cross tattoo on her neck, and a ghost tattoo on her side
Police also released images of the white car, writing: ‘Investigators are interested in identifying the individual in the below photos. This individual may have information related to the disappearance of Madison Bell from Highland County on May 17’
Highland County Sheriff Donnie Barrera said: ‘There’s no reason, so far, that we found, why she would’ve pulled into that parking lot.’
‘Nothing disheveled or looked like it had been rummaged through or anything like that’, he said of her car.
Police also released images of the white car, writing: ‘Investigators are interested in identifying the individual in the below photos. This individual may have information related to the disappearance of Madison Bell from Highland County on May 17.’
Gov. Mike DeWine urged anyone with information to come forward in his briefing Thursday and the FBI also joined the search for Madison.
Madison Bell, 18, was last seen leaving her home in Ross County on Sunday morning to go to a tanning salon. Her car was later found in a church parking lot, unlocked and with the missing teen’s phone inside and the keys still in the ignition
Bell (pictured with her live-in boyfriend of five years, left), was set to graduate on Sunday afternoon. Her mother said she would not have missed it
Madison’s mother, Melissa Bell (left), and her boyfriend, Cody Mann (right), drove to the church and found her car unlocked, with her phone inside
The high school senior vanished on Sunday morning just hours before her graduation.
Her mother, Melissa Bell, said she last saw Madison at home at 10.30am on Sunday before the senior left to go to her tanning appointment ahead of her graduation at McClain High School.
Tanning businesses had just reopened in Ohio last Friday following the coronavirus lockdown.
When Madison, known to her family and friends as ‘Maddie,’ did not return home after about an hour, her mother started texting and calling her, but received no response.
Bell insisted her daughter would never leave her family and friends, especially during graduation week.
‘She would always contact me even if she was going to be five minutes late,’ the distraught mother said.
Cody Mann, Madison’s boyfriend of five years, broke down in tears pleading for her safe return during an interview with Fox19.
‘She’s the most loving girl I’ve ever seen in my life. I mean, I can’t even explain it… I just want her to come home,’ he said through sobs.
I’ll see you when you get back is the last thing I got to say’, he added.
Bell’s car was found abandoned with the keys still in the ignition in the parking lot of the Good Shepherd Church in Highland County (pictured)
Madison Bell, 18 (left and right), was last seen leaving her home in Ross County, Ohio, on Sunday night. She was heading to a tanning salon, but she never made it there
More than 300 volunteers came out to search for Madison on Sunday and Monday, spending thousands of man-hours scouring trails and woods, and distributing flyers.
Concerned that Madison may have gotten into a car accident, Bell and Mann drove to the Good Shepherd Church parking lot near the Corner Market tanning salon, where they found her car.
‘The windows are up, we open the door, her phone is laying in it, her keys in the ignition, the change is in the container she had. The car was left unlocked,’ the mother recounted to WHIO. ‘She would never leave her car unlocked, she would never leave her phone in there.’
Bell said she tried to unlock Madison’s phone but was unable to and handed it over to law enforcement.
Madison Bell is described as a white female, weighing 120lbs and standing at 5 feet 6 inches in height, with brown eyes and brown hair. She has grey contact lenses, a cross tattoo on her neck, and a ghost tattoo on her side.
She was last seen wearing a T-shirt, brown sandals, black leggings or Star Wars pants, and a black North Face Jacket.
Anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to call the Highland County Sheriff’s Office at (937) 393-1421.
Source: dailymail US
