FLORENCE TOWNSHIP, N.J. - Sarah Townsend, an 18-year-old girl from New Jersey, was reported missing Monday morning by her boyfriend who spotted her car near a local pond.
The Allentown High School senior left her western New Jersey home around 7 a.m. and was expected to be heading to school. Three hours later an intense search for the missing teenager was underway, reports CBS station KYW.
The search centers around a pond located in Burlington Township. According to police, Sarah's car was found parked near the pond at 10 a.m. by her 20-year-old boyfriend, who then proceeded to call 911. Police ended up finding her cell phone and purse inside the car, the station reports
Dive teams searched the shallow pond until darkness fell Monday. They searched along the water's edge looking for any possible clues as to what happened, according to the station.
"At this time we still have nothing leading us to foul play or anything suspicious, " said Burlington Township Police Lt. Brian Painter said to KYW.
More than 100 rescue personnel as well as search dogs scoured the roadways near the area in hopes of finding Townsend.
sounds fishy like everything else going on in the world latelyy
her parents saw her at 0700 going off to school. a couple hours later her boyfriend just happens to find her car abandoned. with her phone and purse in it. the police are called.
do all of you call police or panic or go searching if your 18-year-old girlfriend didn't show up for school or answer her phone? and you know exactly where to look! amazing. i want a poly.
GB: i just read the story on the ABC website - if you read the comments it makes me so mad that people are making up so many rumors. it's not about WHO KNOWS WHAT or being RIGHT or WRONG- it's about SARAH and LOCATING HER AND BRINGING HER HOME SAFE.
i will be checking this story throughout the day. there was NO sign of her or a struggle at the park. makes me wonder if the car was planted there.
Fox Philly
FLORENCE, N.J. - The family of a missing New Jersey girl is offering a $10,000 reward for her safe return.
Sarah Townsend, 18, was last seen Monday morning leaving her Florence home for school.
Her car was found in a Burlington Township park near a pond. Her purse and cell phone were inside.
Police do not suspect foul play. Her parents say she has never run away from home. It was reportedly her boyfriend who called police.
"We want you to come home," the young woman's mother, Laurie Townsend, said Tuesday. "We want you to know we love you. You're not in trouble, just please come home, Sarah."
"Everything's OK, Sarah. Just come back. If anyone knows where Sarah is to bring back her safe," said the teen's father, Roy Townsend.
Friends say it's unlike the 18-year-old not to be in touch or responsible.
At least 100 people took part in the search for Townsend on Tuesday.
New Jersey 101.5-FM's Eric Scott, who joined "Good Day" on Wednesday morning to discuss the case, said, "They searched the lake. I mean they had people out looking everywhere for her and, I mean, she really vanished without a trace."
Police can't track her cell phone because they found that, and they say they don't really have credit cards or things like that they can search for use of.
Townsend's parents have said a couple of times that they're not mad at her, everything's OK and don't be afraid to come home, leading to speculation that maybe there was an argument beforehand.
"But police haven't really put a lot of stock in that," Scott reported. "They've said the same thing about teens can be impetuous, and they can be emotional and, you know, they're prone to those types of flights. But that just doesn't seem to be the case here. And I almost got the sense from the parents that they don't know what was going on, that they were trying to figure out, 'Boy, was it something we said? Was it something that we did? Did we drive her away? Did she runaway?' And I'm not entirely certain the parents know either."
One of the rumors on the fb is that she was fighting with her bf and that she said she was going to kill herself. And that a suicide note was left in the car. And that she was supposed to meet her bf at the place where her car was found. That was all from yesterday. I haven't read it today.
jmoo
i sure would like a photo, some info and name on the boyfriend. it should come out at some point.
SouthJerseyLocalNews
MIDDLETOWN, Pa. — Aunt Colleen Makovicz sits in her Bucks County home, just as puzzled as everybody else over what has happened to her sweet niece Sarah Townsend — the pretty blonde, blue-eyed schoolgirl of 18 who lives in Florence Township, Burlington County, N.J. No one knows.
Sarah, 18, was on her way to Allentown High School on Monday morning where her father works in maintenance, and she attends school, when she disappeared. Her boyfriend later found her Oldsmobile Intrigue parked on Green Acres Field adjacent to Sherman’s Pond in Burlington Township.
Aunt Makovicz wants the world to see Sarah’s picture, to look for her, to tell us where she is. “We’re desperately trying to reach out to people,” she said.
Burlington Township Police spokesman Bruce Painter said Tuesday that another day of searching — a two-square-mile area had been scoured — produced no signs of a skirmish or a suicide or a murder. Sarah’s parents went on TV at noon to plead for her to come home, offering a $10,000 reward. State police sonar units had searched the pond; dogs sniffed around the car. Nothing.
“She’s a great kid,” Aunt Colleen said, “and we don’t know what happened. She left for school at 7 a.m.; my sister saw her, she was in good spirits. Her boyfriend is the person who called police. He found the car at Green Acres Park.
“They have dragged the pond, and they’re declaring it’s clear,” she said. “They used sonar, scuba divers, the marine helicopters, a grid was done on the whole park. The park is fine. That park has been declared she’s not there. ...
“Her purse and her phone is in the car. Her money was in the wallet. The car was running, and the door was open.”
He is in this video with the parents "An Emotional Plea for Missing NJ Teen's Safe Return". His name is Matt W.
Here is what they said in the video.....
Scared, worried and choked with emotion Roy and Laurie Townsend, Sarah's parents, were barely able to speak on Tuesday.
"We want you to come home, we want you to know we love you. You are not in trouble. Just please come home Sarah," Laurie Townsend said.
"Just come back. Anybody knows where she, bring back her safe. Please, we love her. We miss her and we just want her home," said Roy Townsend.
Sarah's boyfriend, Matt Welsh, also spoke to reporters.
"Sarah, baby, I know you're out there just come back, please," he said.
If she was planning on a 'suicide' because of fighting with the bf then that would make sense why he knew where to go to find the car. I guess if this is the case LE is just holding the note? If they were fighting and her folks really didn't know too much about her then she could have been meeting the bf before school and he has done something. I can see an guy a little older being super upset over a pretty little girl jilting him. To me, if the car was left running and she really told him she was gonna kill herself then she has done a good job hiding herself. Might be why the rents are saying she's not going to be in any trouble and to just come home. If she's pulling a stunt and faking then she needs a good ass whipping and she ought to have to pay the city back for all this trouble she is causing. LE doesn't need little girl/bf problems when there are missing children and much worse happening. I do hope she is okay though.
boyfriend is Matt Welsh. a drummer. i don't know anything about him. yet.
edit to add: 2 very tearful young female cousins on JVM tonight, they know very little about the boyfriend and what interested me, is they said they did not know she was missing until he found car "by coincidence". i don't buy that.
Police called off the search for missing New Jersey teen, Sarah Townsend on Wednesday evening, as family and friends vowed to keep looking for the 18-year-old.
"Positive thoughts, positive thoughts, please," said her mother, Laurie Townsend, during a vigil for Sarah.
The mystery surrounding the teen's disappearance is taking its toll on this tight-knit community.
"Could be anyone. Like you don't know what happened, it could be any of us standing here," a friend said.
After police ended their search, Townsend's family and friends returned to Green Acres Park in Burlington Township where Sarah's car was found on Monday with her purse and cell phone still inside. They lit candles, said a prayer and comforted one another.
"I feel horrible for the parents and I hope she comes home soon for their sake," said Jillian Valdes.
Sarah, who is from Florence Township vanished Monday morning. Her boyfriend found her car at the park near Sherman's Pond.
"He's really shooken up," said Sarah's father, Roy Townsend.
Sarah's parents say they don't want to speculate on what might have happened to their daughter. They want to let investigators do their job.
"Thank you for keeping the story straight and not making things look silly or not right or saying suicide or saying things that aren't there," said Sarah's dad.
Her friends and family say they'll be back at Green Acres Park to look for Sarah on their own, for as long as it takes.
"We're not gonna stop. Everyone's gonna keep doing something. We've got people putting fliers all over the place," said Sarah's mother.
"We think positive. We think Sarah's out there, we think someone has seen something and we want her home."
ALLENTOWN, N.J. (PIX11)—
Authorities have ended their search for an 18-year-old girl who was last seen Monday morning leaving her Florence, New Jersey home, headed to school.
They say there is no evidence of foul play and are labeling it a missing persons case. Their investigation, however is ongoing. Authorities also now say they have reason to believe she may have had an intention to harm herself.
wrong spelling on bf. police say he has been cooperative.
Sarah's boyfriend Matt Welch found her car Monday. He did not attend Wednesday night's vigil with her parent's and friends.
"He's really shook up. That's all I can say right now," said Roy Townsend.
Sarah's parents did not answer a lot of detailed questions FUCK THAT> YOUR CHILD IS MISSING< TELL THE TRUTH! because in their words they want "to keep things positive." They say they have no idea what happened to their daughter, and they're just hopeful she is listening.
Townsend wouldn't comment on her daughter's boyfriend and his relationship with the Townsend family. Police have said he is not a suspect.
if she killed herself, where??
and why leave car open and running?
this is strange as hell. and she is old enough to leave on her own volition, legally. tough case.
i can't imagine the police wouldn't say whether they did NOT find a note. but suicides usually want to be found.
if she is hiding out and torturing her family she needs an ass-whipping. and to be charged for waste of police resources in search.
but that would be better than the scenario where someone killed her. in any case, she has vanished into thin air with no evidence left behind, that we are aware of. and someone in the family is holding back information.
NJ.com
Police would not comment on whether or not they had found a suicide note, but said yesterday they had reason to believe Townsend was not mentally stable at the time she disappeared.
“We have concerns that she might have wanted to harm herself,” township Police Director Walter Corter said.
But Townsend’s family disagrees.
“We don’t believe that, partly because she was going to two proms, she was happy that morning,” Townsend’s aunt Colleen Makovicz said. “She bought two dresses, she was discussing with her mom what hairdos to wear.”
“............... she was going to two proms, she was happy that morning,” ..............“She bought two dresses, she was discussing with her mom what hairdos to wear.”
Too bad she is missing, from what I am reading she is indispensable for the survival of the species and may have saved mankind.
BURLINGTON TWP. -- Sarah Townsend, the 18-year-old Allentown High School senior missing since Monday, has been found dead.
Townsend, 18, of Florence and a senior at Allentown High School, was found dead today in a pond near where her car was discovered abandoned on Monday.
Her body was found in a pond in the Burlington County park where her abandoned car was discovered three hours after she was last seen leaving her home in Florence on Monday, according to NBC's Philadelphia affiliate.
K9 police dogs led officers to the pond and a dive team pulled the body out at about 1:15 p.m. Friday.
People are safe and have no one to worry about, police told NBC Philadelphia's Deanna Durante.
Townsend's boyfriend Matt Welsh, who found her empty car Monday morning, arrived at the scene Friday after police found the body. He ran crying through the crime tape and had to be stopped by police.
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