The FBI has joined the search for Marley McKenna Spindler, the lost teen from South Carolina who went missing on her first day of school. The 16-year-old was entering her junior year at Socastee High School. "The FBI has offered their help," Horry County Police Department's Lt. Raul Denis said, according to People. "We will welcome any help we can get. We want to find her safe and soon."
Spindler was last seen on Thursday, Aug. 20, around 7:30 a.m. while having breakfast with friends at a Chick-Fil-A restaurant located in Surfside Beach. She then told her friends that she was going to pick up her friend, Jeremy, after breakfast. After fetching 22-year-old Jeremy, a man whom she met at a beach weeks before, she reportedly drove him to a place in Garden City, then headed back to school.
"One minute we're managing and the next it all falls into chaos," said Spindler's aunt, Shelley Long, according to NBC. "We can't rule out that she was abducted, but we also have to face that maybe she ran away. We just don't know."
Long told the police that the missing teen sent a puzzling group text to her friends saying someone was following her. "They all thought she was joking, and didn't think that much of it," the aunt said. "They are also teenagers and didn't want to tattle on their friend if she was cutting school. They didn't think anything bad had happened. But now we're all scared."
Recent CCTV images surfaced showing Spindler going to the bank withdrawing less than $100. Denis also added that her phone records revealed that "she left alone and not under duress or coercion," Daily Mail reported.
The outfit she was wearing when she was last seen was blue jeans, with a floral tank top, gold sandals and a cross-body purse. She also had a Vera Bradley book bag and lunchbox with her. She was said to be driving a 2002 silver Ford Escape with the tag South Carolina KFI-776.
Any information about the missing teen could be relayed to the Horry County Police Department or their Tip Line at 843-915-8477 (843-915-TIPS).
