An amber alert has been issued for a missing Hawkins County girl, who willingly left her Surgoinsville home Monday night.
Hayleigh Wilson, 14, was last seen at a Walmart in Marion, North Carolina, on Tuesday morning with a sex offender.
She is in the company of 41-year-old Benjamin Shook, who has an active warrant for failure to register as a sex offender in Georgia.
“We realized Hayleigh was gone and the key was missing from my purse,” Hayleigh’s mother, Stacy Johnston, said.
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Family members and authorities believe that Hayleigh stole her step-fathers car, along with his wallet that was inside.
“We were hoping she’d run off with one of her little boyfriends, to have a night out on the town, but it didn’t work out that way,” Hayleigh’s father, Eddie Wilson said.
Law enforcement cannot confirm the place where Hayleigh and Shook met up.
Hayleigh’s parents both said they believe their daughter met Shook through a mobile app called Kik, which is an instant messaging application.
“I’m positive if she’d known that this guy was a sex offender, the child that she is, she would’ve never accepted someone like that,” Eddie Wilson said. “These pedophiles have ways of getting into kids’ minds, and just destroying them.”
Family and community members said this behavior is shocking.
“I’ve known Hayleigh for awhile. She seemed like a pretty normal kid, I mean, straight A student,” Surgoinsville Police Chief, James Hammonds.
However, several months ago, Hayleigh’s mother found text messages on her daughters phone from older men.
“I found text messages with older men that I did not think were appropriate,” Johnston said.
Hayleigh lost phone privileges, but her mom said inappropriate conversations continued on social media.
“Come to find out, as of yesterday, she has created other accounts that we were not aware of,” Johnston said.
Surveillance pictures show Hayleigh and Shook walking into the Walmart in Marion, North Carolina with an empty cart. Pictures taken later show the pair leaving Walmart empty handed, and getting into the stolen maroon Ford Explorer Sport Trac.
Authorities say they tried to use Hayleigh’s stepfather’s stolen credit card to buy camping gear. Investigators worry their plan is to get off the grid.
“That’s kinda what we was worried about at first,” Hammonds said.
As of Wednesday evening, local and federal law enforcement were following many different leads in different states about where Hayleigh may be.
“Be a man about it. She’s just a 14-year-old child. He has no business with her,” Eddie Wilson said.
“I love you, and I miss you. We want you home,” Johnston said.
Authorities ask if you have any information on Wilson or Shook, contact the Surgoinsville Police Department at 423-272-7121 or the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation at 1-800-TBI-FIND.Authorities say Shook has multiple tattoos, and drives a maroon Ford Explorer Sport Trac. He has a Tennessee license plate with tag D6020D.
