Ella Celeste Jones has been missing from her Mount Vernon home since Jan. 5
The mother of a missing 14-year-old Washington state girl fears her daughter was lured by a man online.
Ella Celeste Jones has been missing from her Mount Vernon home since Jan. 5.
Sarah Merrill said Ella left a note saying she loved her, then left.
“A couple of kids did see her speaking to an adult male on a video on our computer,” Merrill told KING-TV .
It reportedly started on a free online chat site called Omegle , which gained popularity among teens during the pandemic.
“It’s like a roulette,” Merrill said. “It just matches you with random people.”
The site shut down in November, but Ella apparently stayed in touch with the man named Keith, believed to be in his 30s, on Discord, the Mirror reported .
Merrill said her daughter is in “danger” and was groomed for several months before she disappeared.
She was in Seattle this week putting up missing person fliers after someone gave her a tip that Ella was seen getting on a bus headed to the city.