Law enforcement agencies in multiple states have joined authorities in Tennessee in searching for a teenage girl who disappeared from her home two weeks ago.
Detective Jason Fillyaw with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office in Tennessee, said during a press conference Friday that 14-year-old Savannah Pruitt was reported missing by her parents on Jan. 14 after her mother found she was not at their Madisonville home.
“I’ve been in an investigative position with this agency for three years now, and this is the first time we’ve had a missing juvenile go to this level,” Fillyaw said. “Usually, we locate them within 24 to 48 hours and they’re home safe.”
Savannah was last seen around 11 p.m. ET the day before she was reported missing.
Fillyaw said Savannah has two cellphones with her and they pinged the morning of Jan. 14 near a welcome center in the Corbin, Kentucky, area, roughly 130 miles from her home. Investigators believe the teen may have been traveling north to an unknown destination.
The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office contacted authorities in Corbin, who searched for the girl but did not find her.
Her cellphones are no longer turned on, and she has not used social media since before she vanished, Fillyaw said.
“Life has just seized for us since the day she left,” Savannah's father, Randall Pruitt, said during the press conference.
“It’s like having your soul ripped out of your body. You can’t think, you can’t eat, you can’t sleep, you can’t rest,” he said.
Her mother, Christina Pruitt, begged her daughter to come back home.
“She was my sunshine,” she said, “and now my sunshine is gone. Please help us find our baby, please.”
Fillyaw said the girl is not officially classified as endangered because authorities do not have information to suggest Savannah is in direct danger.
He also told reporters that he doesn’t believe the missing teenager intended to run away or was in communication with someone who wanted to abduct her.
Authorities in Tennessee, Kentucky and Georgia are all involved in the investigation. The Atlanta bureau of the FBI confirmed it is assisting with the case because the Pruitt family lived in Lawrenceville, Georgia before moving to Tennessee in December.