After daughter’s disappearance last week, Sacramento mother gets good Christmas Eve news
Update:
A missing 13-year-old Sacramento girl has been found safe in Modesto, and reunited with her family.
Matthiya Miller had been missing from her home in Sacramento’s Meadowview neighborhood since Dec. 17.
The Sacramento Police Department announced the news in a tweet at 12:10 p.m. Thursday.
“Matthiya has been safely located in Modesto and reunited with family,” the tweet read. “SPD would like to thank all that shared and local law enforcement agencies in the area who assisted with locating her.”
Miller’s mother, Melissa Essick, had feared foul play, but Miller had been with a friend, Essick said Thursday.
Essick said her daughter has been missing her friends during the coronavirus lockdown.
“She said she hasn’t been able to do anything and she really wanted to do something,” Essick said. “She learned her lesson and she’s not going to do it again.”
Original story:
The family of a missing 13-year-old girl is asking for the community’s help to find her.
Matthiya Miller, 13, has been missing from her home in Sacramento’s Meadowview neighborhood since Dec. 17, said Melissa Essick, her mother.
“I haven’t been able to eat or sleep,” Essick said. “We’ve been praying and everything. I hope she’s back as soon as possible.”
Essick fears foul play as she works with detectives to find her daughter, who has been missing from her home near 24th Street and Del Luna Court.
Miller, who is approximately 5’3 and 145 pounds, was last seen on Dec. 17, around 7:30 p.m., in her bedroom wearing blue Lilo and Stitch pajamas. Essick reported her missing after realizing she was not in her room, at around 9:30 p.m. the same night, she said.
“All of her friends, they can’t believe it,” Essick said. “They don’t believe she ran away.”
Some of Miller’s friends reached out to Essick regarding their friend’s disappearance. They told her they were worried about her because this is not in her character. None of the friends had contact with Miller the night she disappeared, they told Essick.
Miller is an honor roll student who family and friends describe as a good, smart kid who loves to play sports.
“As soon as I found she was missing, I knew it had to be something along with foul play because she doesn’t go anywhere, she doesn’t get in trouble, she doesn’t do anything wrong,” said Essick.
Sacramento Police spokeswoman Sgt. Sabrina Briggs said there are no leads in the case, but said officers are searching for Miller.
“Sacramento Police Department detectives continue to attempt to locate 13-year-old Matthiya Miller,” Briggs said in a statement. “Miller was last seen on December 17, 2020 in South Sacramento. She was last seen wearing Lilo and Stitch pajamas, but may have taken a change of clothes. Detectives know that she has ties to the Stockton area and are asking anybody with information [about] her whereabouts to contact the police department at 916-808-5471.”
The Stockton Police Department’s Missing Person branch said it could not provide any information relating to Miller and directed inquiries to the Sacramento police.
Essick said that she requested the phone company to track Miller’s phone.
Miller’s disappearance sparked support from the community and social media as people have shared fliers and stories on her disappearance.
Leaders of the community are calling for the protection of Black women.
“As a father first, let my daughter be gone for a day ... it would make me lose my mind,” said community activist and family friend Berry Accius. “She’s somebody’s child, she’s a baby,” Accius continued. “She left in pajamas. Somebody picked her up, so somebody knows and somebody has dealings with her.”
Derrell Roberts, founder of the Roberts Family Development Center, served as a mentor for Miller when the North Sacramento nonprofit also served youth in Meadowview, a couple years ago.
“She’s a teenage girl,” Roberts said. “We want her to come home. Come home to a family but also a support system.”
This story was originally published December 23, 2020 at 8:17 PM.
