A distraught mother in Mount Vernon, Washington is begging for help after her 14-year-old daughter met a man online and then vanished three weeks ago, leaving behind a cryptic note.

Sarah Merrill had previously punished her daughter, Ella Jones, for messaging an older man online by temporarily taking away her phone.

The last time she saw her daughter was in her room on the night of Jan. 5. The next morning she was gone according to Fox News Digital.

“She was here at bedtime and we had a normal evening,” Merrill told Fox News Digital in an interview. “She even laid with me right before I went to bed. I was tired because I had a long week at work. And she said, ‘I love you. Goodnight,’ and left the room.”

Call to action in search for Ella Jones. 14-years-old. Last seen Jan. 6th at her home in Mount Vernon, Washington.

Please share and contact Mount Vernon police/or Skagit County Dispatch at (360) 428-3211 if you can help. #missing on @NewsNation #EllaJones pic.twitter.com/F0XAW1rnfj

— Marni Hughes (@MarniHughesTV) January 24, 2024

“Merrill got up to make coffee and omelets the next morning when she realized Jones was not in her room and some of her belongings were gone,” Fox News added.

“She took a bunch of stuff with her like she knew she thought she had somewhere to go. Clothes, her blow-dryer, my flat iron. … So I immediately went to her friend’s house and started asking questions,” Merrill claimed, emphasizing that Ella’s friends were “immediately concerned.”

The girl’s friends had previously told the mother that her daughter had been talking to a man in his late 20s or early 30s on Discord which resulted in her phone being confiscated.

“She wrote a note saying she loved me and that she didn’t want to hurt us anymore,” Merrill told KING5 in an interview referring to the cryptic message the girl left behind.

#FindEllaJones #EllaJones is still missing#MountVernon #WA

Flier and her godmother’s TikTok page for updateshttps://t.co/yNAMwb2MrZ pic.twitter.com/uww1JksiT6

— ℙé‍⬛ (@GaGa_460) January 17, 2024

“Something’s really wrong … I don’t think she can call me,” the mother said according to the New York Post. “She has not ever run away. We are very close. There was also not like a fight, and, ‘I hate you mom, and I run away’ kind of a situation.”

“I didn’t fully realize the gravity of it. … You always have something kind of going on with teenagers to some extent. But, I mean, she’s a really sweet, good-natured kid. So, the longer it went, the more the kids started opening up about [the online relationship],” Merrill noted. “One friend had said that she really trusted him. And they’re all pretty confident that’s where they think she is.”

“I don’t have a lot of specifics or details right now. That’s the only lead we have is that she was talking to a male online. Police have finally taken her electronics to do forensics. So I’m hoping they can find more than what I found in 10 hours of digging,” she said according to Fox News.

The mother believes the man was grooming her daughter who didn’t realize the danger she was in.

“As tips are coming in, we are evaluating each of those on their own merits,” police Lt. David Shackleton said in a statement to KING5. “The Internet’s great for a lot of things, but it can also be a dangerous place, especially for kids.”

https://t.co/BZz1ufybk5#BOLO for #Missing 14yr old #EllaJones who vanished from #MountVernon #WA #Washington on 1/5/24. #MissingTeen #HelpFindMe #MissingTeenAlert #MissingJuvenile #MissingInAmerica #MissingPerson Thanks pic.twitter.com/mL1ru9yHTV

— Danie Mitchel (@TheJoker128) January 17, 2024

Ella Jones is believed to have been wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, multicolored plaid pajama pants, and black Nike Air Force shoes when she left her home that night.

She is described as being 5 feet, 5 inches tall, with brown hair, and weighing about 135 pounds.

Her mother, the police, and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children are asking that if you see the girl please call 911 immediately and contact the Skagit County Dispatch at 360-428-3211.

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Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

Staff Writer at BizPac Review

Terresa Monroe-Hamilton is a Constitutional Conservative who researches and writes extensively on politics and current events.

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