A San Francisco father is pleading for help in finding his missing 12-year-old daughter.
Imani Howell has been missing for nine days as of Wednesday. The girl’s father says he went to the Bayview Police Station as soon as she went missing on November 10th.
Willie Howell told KTVU he worries someone his daughter is familiar with, lured her away.
On Wednesday night, Howell and friends joined in a prayer for Imani as they posted missing person flyers along Third Street.
http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html
“Scared, very scared,” said Howell as he searches for his 12-year-old daughter. “She’s a smart brilliant kid. This is why I know somebody has her and put her in the streets like this.”
The single father says he last saw his daughter on a Monday morning before school.
Howell said he and his daughter had a morning ritual, she’d tell him she’s leaving and he’d look out the window to make sure she got on Muni safe.
But Imani never went to school that day.
When she didn’t return home her usual time, her father knew something was wrong and went to the police for help.
Investigators say they’re treating the case as a missing juvenile at risk case with the possibility of human trafficking.
“We are exploring all possible circumstances regarding her so if anyone has any information regarding such matters, please call us right away,” said Officer Grace Gatpandan with San Francisco Police.
Now the family is concerned that Imani has fallen in the hands of a predatory adult.
“Where are you? Where are you? Who has you? And if you’re a man, what are you doing with a kid?” questions Barbara Glaspie, the 12-year-old’s godmother.
Imani’s father says it may be somebody Imani knows or met online.
“I raised my daughter from day one. I know she’s not going with anybody she’s not comfortable with, I know it has to be somebody she knows,” said Howell.
Howell had taken the 7th grader’s phone away last month as punishment when a teacher complained that she was acting up in school.
Police now have her phone.
“Whoever has my daughter, let her go. I love you. We all love you. You have family here.
Please come home,” said Howell.
Police say Imani has been spotted wearing her hair down and that she has been seen in San Francisco’s Mission District and along Oakland’s International Boulevard.
Police say a team of investigators from different jurisdictions are working on this case and hope that leads will help them bring Imani Howell home safely.
