Police find 2 missing Newport Beach eighth-graders
UPDATE: Two eighth-graders missing since Saturday morning were located by the Orange police department Monday night, according to police and the mother of one of the teens.
More details to come.
EARLIER: Newport Beach police are asking for the public’s help in finding two eighth-graders who are believed to have run away together Saturday morning.
Logan Rockwell, 14, and Jadyn Horin, 13, were reported missing from their Newport Beach homes around 7 a.m., their parents said. Both are students at Ensign Intermediate School in Newport Beach.
“It appears they had some kind of plan and they left together,” said Jennifer Manzella, spokeswoman for the Newport Beach Police Department.
Manzella said a school resource officer spent the morning interviewing Ensign students. Newport police are working with police in Costa Mesa, where the teens reportedly were seen Saturday night at the Triangle commercial center, Manzella said.
“We’re asking for any information about their whereabouts or plans that their friends might have known about,” Manzella said.
Logan and Jadyn were believed to have about $140. Jadyn’s mother, Leisha Horin, said her daughter doesn’t have medication that she needs to take twice a day.
The teens left their cell phones at their homes. An unsent text message found on Jadyn’s phone stated: “Please do not come looking for me. I’m sending myself to my own boarding school on the street.”
She wrote that she planned to return home eventually. “When I do come back, I hope we still do everything like the Ariana Grande concert,” the message said. Grande is scheduled to perform in Southern California in April.
The teens had been in an “intense” relationship since the end of September, according to Amanda Rockwell, Logan’s mother.
Rockwell said her husband discovered that Logan was missing, and an older son drove to Jadyn’s house. She also was gone.
Manzella said any missing person younger than 18 is considered “at risk.” The teens’ information was entered in state and federal missing-persons databases.
Horin said she last saw her daughter around 2 a.m. Friday, when the teen hugged her before going to bed.
Since Saturday, Rockwell has posted fliers with the teens’ pictures at Volcom Skate Park in Costa Mesa and at other locations. She said her son loves to skateboard.
She said she has heard from callers who reported seeing the teens in Costa Mesa at the Starbucks at 2590 Newport Blvd. and near the corner of Santa Ana and Del Mar avenues Saturday morning. They also were reported to be at the movie theater at the Triangle on Saturday night.
“We’re pretty sure their fear of coming home is that we won’t let them be together,” Horin said. “We’re not even mad, we’re just terrified and worried. We just want them home and happy and safe.”
Anyone with information is asked to call Newport Beach police Det. Thomas Monarch at (949) 644-3790.