Update: Texas girl whose mom’s Facebook post went viral is back home
Update (Friday):
Heaven Ray Cox, 15, has been found and is back home with her family.
“She has been found and is safe!!! Thanks to everybody for all you have done for one little girl, please don't forget that there are others out there still missing. Much love!!!” her mother, Tammy Day Cox, posted on Facebook.
She also posted this update:
Now that have had time to process everything, and we are home and whole again.......and very thankful, there are some...
Posted by Tammy Day Cox on Thursday, November 30, 2017
Original story:
A teenage girl from East Texas was last seen Saturday – and her family is worried she might have been “manipulated” by a California man through Snapchat.
Heaven Ray Cox, 15, left a “goodbye note” to her mother and father in Orange County, Texas, and told them she would be without a cellphone and possibly heading to California, according to a Facebook post by her mother, Tammy Day Cox, that has since gone viral.
I have an update and it isn't good. After putting pressure on Jhonathon White, he told me what I was after. He knew...
Posted by Tammy Day Cox on Tuesday, November 28, 2017
“It’s total shock, total shock,” the girl’s mother said, according to ABC 13. “We did not see it coming. Mainly we don’t have any answers at all. We have no name, no face.”
She was reported missing about 3 p.m. Sunday, according to the Beaumont Enterprise, and police have listed her as a runaway.
But her mom says she has confirmed that her daughter was talking to a California man on Snapchat.
“The man she has been talking to is a predator, who has apparently been manipulating her for some time, and in her current state of mind, she believes that he is her friend,” Cox said.
Cox says her daughter has bipolar disorder and is “off her meds and is in the manic phase.”
Orange County, Texas, sheriff’s Detective Janois Grizzaffi told the Beaumont Enterprise that investigators are looking into claims about the man and the Snapchat connection. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is also on the case, according to Click 2 Houston.
“We need to bring her home, as we believe she is in grave danger,” Cox said in the Facebook post.
“I am asking everyone to share this to their wall, and particularly those who live in California and every state between there and Texas.”
Heaven Ray Cox has brown eyes, blond hair, is 5 feet 3 inches tall and weighs about 113 pounds. She has a nose piercing on the right side. Sometimes she wears large, round-rimmed, dark-colored glasses.
If you have information, you are asked to call the Orange County Sheriff’s Office at 409-883-2612 or Crime Stoppers at 409-833-TIPS (8477) or 833TIPS.com.
This story was originally published November 30, 2017 at 8:24 AM with the headline "Update: Texas girl whose mom’s Facebook post went viral is back home."