A missing persons report has been filed for a teenager who went missing after the fair Sunday night.
Travis Houston, 14, of Zanesville, last contacted his aunt and caretaker, Melissa Greiner, early Monday morning from a friend’s home on Spangler Drive. Greiner notified Houston that if he wasn’t home by Monday morning, authorities would be contacted. When her nephew didn’t show up, she contacted Zanesville police and the Muskingum County Sheriff’s Office to report a missing person.
http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html
“Some people have said they’ve seen him at the fair but police haven’t been able to locate him,” Greiner said.
Greiner has made hundreds of fliers to put up at the fair. She said Houston had been running with a rough crowd since during the past year, most of them 18- and 19-year-old boys. Although she reported her nephew missing, she’s concerned that her plea for help isn’t being treated with the sort of urgency it deserves.
Griener said she was told by the ZPD that an Amber alert would not be issued.
Captain Doug Merry confirmed that an Amber alert was not being issued because there are a host of criteria that has to be met before the state will accept one of those alerts.
“I’m trying not to think the worst, but it’s tough. How long do I have to wait? What’s sufficient time for this to be considered an emergency?” Griener said.
Houston is 5 feet 2, 140 pounds, with sandy brown hair and blue eyes. He has a tattoo of a cross over his heart, a memorial to his father. Greiner asked for anyone with information on the boy’s whereabouts to contact her at 740-297-4130, or ZPD at 740-455-0700.
