UPDATE: On January 26, 2024, Ahlea was found safe. No further details are available at this time.
“We have never stopped looking for her,” Stacia Freeman told Dateline.
Stacia’s younger sister, Ahlea Freeman, has been missing for over three months. The 31-year-old was last seen on October 1, 2023, in Wilmington, Delaware,
Stacia told Dateline that she and her sister grew up in New Jersey. “We grew up in Newark and then we moved to West Orange,” Stacia said.
According to Stacia, Ahlea moved to Delaware around 2020. “She wanted a change of scenery,” Stacia said. “She wasn’t afraid. Like, she didn’t even know anyone in Delaware, but she took the chance to move there to --. And she loved it. She absolutely loved it. She felt as though the people were a little bit friendlier there than Jersey
Stacia describes her sister as very quiet. “Very to herself, very nice. Doesn’t like confrontation,” she said. “She was an avid gamer, huge on gaming. She has, like, a whole little gaming community that she talks to.”
Stacia told Dateline she last spoke to her sister on September 14. “I was texting her, asking her could I come visit her [with my] daughter. She declined, ‘cause she said… that there was gonna be, like, a parade and they were shutting down her street and it would be nowhere to park,” Stacia recalled. “So, um, I thought nothing of it, because, like I said, she liked to be by herself. So I just thought maybe she was in one of her moments where she didn’t wanna be bothered with anybody.”
September 29 was Stacia’s daughter’s birthday. No call came from her Aunt Ahlea. “She didn’t say happy birthday to my daughter or send her anything. And that’s very, very strange because she -- she loves my kid,” Stacia said. “So when she didn’t say anything, we’re like, ‘OK, she really wants to be by herself.’ Still, again, thinking nothing of it.”
Stacia said she got a concerning call from Ahlea’s apartment complex on November 20. “I got a call from her apartment asking me if I had spoken to her and that I was her emergency contact. And I told them, ‘No’,” she recalled. “I said, ‘I’m actually looking for her. I can’t get her to reply to me.’ And then that’s when they told me that she hadn’t paid her rent and that they hadn’t seen her.”
Stacia said that she immediately drove to Delaware from New Jersey. The next morning, she met with police to conduct a wellness check at her sister’s apartment.
“Her ID and her debit card and stuff was on the floor in her apartment,” she said. “All her belongings were still there; nothing was disturbed or anything… And then that’s when we filed for the missing report and the gold alert went out for her.”
On November 21, Ahlea’s 31st birthday, she was reported missing to the Wilmington Police Department.
Wilmington Police Department Police Policy and Communications Director David Karas told Dateline in an email the Ahlea was last seen on October 1 in the 100 block of West 10th Street, near her apartment. “It is not currently know what she was doing at the time of her disappearance,” he said.
Stacia told Dateline that their family has done their own searches for Ahlea. “We made flyers and went around her area and we hung up some,” she said. “We handed out some, but as far as the police doing that, no, they didn’t do anything. The only efforts that they did was the gold alert.”
David Karas wrote that while there is “no evidence of foul play at this time” in Ahlea’s case, “investigators have leveraged various platforms to try to locate her and find any leads as to her whereabouts.”
Stacia told Dateline that it is unlike her sister to just take off. “She’s not gonna disappear like this and for this long. And she -- minus the whole disappearance, whatever -- she does not play when it comes to her bills and her credit,” she told Dateline. “She does not play with it, so for her to have not paid her rent, knowing that she would get an eviction on her credit, or whatever else may happen, she would have never have wished that. She has fantastic credit.”
Stacia doesn’t think her sister would be out of touch with family this long, either. “I feel like it’s been too long. I feel as though maybe she has passed away,” she said. “Even if she wanted some time to herself, it’s been way too long for her to stay away and not say something.”
At this point, the family is at a loss. “We have no clue. That’s what makes it frustrating for us,” Stacia said. “So we -- we have no answers even to this day.”
The latest update Stacia said she’s gotten from police was a couple of weeks ago: that someone reported seeing Ahlea working at a store in New York. “But again, we don’t know if that’s really her or not,” she said.
Wilmington PD has “followed up on possible sightings both in Wilmington and in New York (working with Nassau County Detectives),” David Karas wrote Dateline. “But neither have been able to be confirmed.”
If Ahlea is out there alive somewhere, Stacia Freeman said she has a message for her: “I just want her to know that she is loved and that she can come home,” she said. “We’re waiting for her.”
Ahlea is 5’6” and 123 lbs. She has short hair and a nose ring.
Anyone with information about Ahlea’s disappearance is asked to call the Wilmington Police Department at 302-654-5151 or email Sgt. Ron Mullin at ron.mullin@CJ.State.de.us.