Police have initiated a search after a 13-year-old girl went missing in Colorado.
Colorado Springs Police Department are requesting assistance in the search for Sophie Rowe, whom they describe as an “at-risk juvenile,” last seen Thursday.
Police say she was last seen at the intersection of Rice Drive and Lynn Avenue at around 2:40 p.m. local time and is reportedly not familiar with the area.
Sophie is described as a Hispanic female, five feet, five inches tall and around 120 pounds. She was last seen wearing a baggy black t-shirt, baggy gray sweatpants, and black tennis shoes.
Colorado Springs Police Department have urged anyone with relevant information as to the teen’s whereabout to contact them at 719-444-7000.
Newsweek has contacted Colorado Springs Police Department for additional information.
In the U.S., an average of 664,776 people went missing annually between 2007 and 2020, based on data from the federally funded National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUS). This equates to approximately 6.5 missing persons for every 100,000 individuals.
NamUS currently lists 25,119 active missing persons cases across the country. However, this figure does not represent the actual total, as it only includes voluntarily reported cases. Every day, roughly 2,300 Americans are reported missing.
“In general, there is no federal requirement for reporting missing persons cases to NamUS. So, without mandatory reporting by law enforcement, the number of actual missing persons in each state is actually much higher than reported,” Jesse Goliath, a Mississippi professor who launched a missing persons repository separate from NamUS previously told Newsweek.
In February, Newsweek mapped missing persons cases by state.
NamUS data at the time showed that Oklahoma had the largest percentage of missing people in the country, with 16 missing per 100,000. Arizona followed with 14.2.
Louisiana and Arkansas were also ranked above the national average. Per 100,000 people, Arkansas had 11.6 missing.
Massachusetts ranked lowest, with 2.7 per 100,000.
Last month, Colorado officials located a five-year-old and his father, missing for over a week, after the child’s mother was murdered.
Chrystal Snow, 39, was found shot in Pagosa Spring on July 2. Hevon Martinez, the infant’s 17-year-old brother, was being investigated for Snow’s murder.
Separately, an AMBER alert was cancelled earlier this week for missing 16-year-old Autumn Nicole Lyon after she was safely located.
Police said Lyon travelled to Texas with a 30-year-old she met online, one Adrian Garces, who was taken into custody.
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