Missing Chapel Hill teen search continues

The last time Walter Morrow saw his 14-year-old daughter, Rosa, she was sitting on the couch waiting to go out with friends. That was Oct. 22, and he hasn’t seen her since.

Morrow said he realized Rosa was gone around 10:30 p.m. after he woke up from a nap and assumed she went out to meet friends on Franklin Street. She had a 1 a.m. curfew.

“I try to let her have freedom,” he said of his daughter, who loves to play basketball and is a ninth-grader at Chapel Hill High School.

When Rosa had not returned home to the Morrow family’s residence on Bynum Street or called by Monday, he reported her disappearance to Chapel Hill police, said department spokesman Kevin Gunter.

Chapel Hill police investigator Nate Chambers said on Friday that since Rosa’s disappearance, he has received calls from two sources who claim to have received text messages from her.

Chambers said this would lead them to conclude that she is alive and has run away as investigators initially thought.

He said because multiple sources have contacted him he thinks she is in the area, but nothing has been confirmed.

“All I know is what people are telling me,” Chambers said.

But Rosa’s father isn’t convinced.

“This is something that doesn’t usually happen,” Morrow said.

“Rosa would have called.”

Morrow said he believes someone else influenced Rosa’s disappearance because she has never been gone this long without calling.

“That’s what makes me know something is wrong,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong at home for her to do anything like that.”

Gunter said Wednesday the department had no reason to suspect foul play and assumed the case was a runaway.

He said a similar incident had happened with Rosa in early October where she went missing for a short period of time.

But Morrow said last time she called not long after she left and told him she was staying with her mother, who also lives in the area.

He said the current situation is different, and he doesn’t think Rosa is near Chapel Hill.

Morrow said he doesn’t know who she planned to go out with the night of her disappearance, but he has a lot friends and family around town.

If someone saw her or knew her whereabouts, he would have been contacted, Morrow said.

Chambers said he has been in contact with the police department in Durham, an area Rosa has been known to frequent.

Her father said she is about 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighs about 165 pounds.

The last time he saw his daughter, her hair was in braids.

Morrow said he is hopeful Rosa will return home soon.

Hoping to get information, he said he has been asking people if they’ve seen her.

“That’s the only thing I can do,” he said.

Chapel Hill police ask anyone who has information concerning Rosa’s whereabouts to call them at (919) 968-2760.

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