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Police are seeking nationwide assistance in locating Barnes, because they believe she may have been taken out of the state of Maryland:
"It is likely that she may have been taken outside the state of Maryland," Baltimore Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told WBALTV.com in an e-mail.
"Detectives are growing increasingly concerned with this disappearance and now suspect foul play, possibly abduction,"Guglielmi wrote. "Investigators have no leads."
Barnes was scheduled to graduate early from high school and wanted to attend Towson University. She has no criminal record and no history of running away. Homicide detectives are now involved in the case.
Both Barnes' mother and father have spoken out. The family gathered at a vigil Saturday and pleaded for the safe return of their daughter:
"I know she's traumatized right now. She's scared out of her mind right now. She's a little innocent girl who does not do any harm to anyone," said Barnes' mother, Janice Sallis.
"My family is not sleeping. My family is not eating," said Barnes' father, Russell Barnes.
The Charlotte Observer is reporting that Barnes' mother is upset because the apartment where her daughter was staying with her older sister had been visited by at least 20 men.
"Deena Barnes misled me," Sallis said to the Observer. "I'm a very protective mother. She assured me it would be just she and Phylicia.
This is a sad case that only emphasizes how important it is that we know where are children are at all times.
Barnes was last seen wearing a navy blue pea coat with a hood, a turquoise shirt and blue jeans, white slipper-boots and was carrying a caramel-colored purse.
Anyone with information in the case is urged to contact Baltimore Police at 443-984-7385.
Comments: (9)
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By: debi m on 1/05/2011 7:48PM
Please pass her picture around the web, We all know we will never see her on CNN, Fox or Oprah.
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By: j bethea on 1/05/2011 9:22PM
Oprah yes if she were a white woman
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By: pachonette on 1/06/2011 3:44AM
Unfortunately the title was tasteless and disturbing to say the least: Black and Missing, WTF does that have to do with this beautiful precious soul of a young lady lost afraid and a long distance away from home and her loving family?? The consolation is that she's getting positive press despite the fact that she's black, which is a rarity, so Praise God for that!!! My thoughts and prayers are with the family and I hope they can find some solace knowing that she's being comforted w/by the Mighty Love of Jesus and by believing in blind faith she will come home safe and unharmed... Remember the battle is not ours it's The Lord'. God Speed and Keep The Faith!!!
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By: E on 1/06/2011 10:43AM
I am praying for this young lady. My heart goes out to the family & friends of this girl.
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By: Maki Sov on 1/06/2011 1:56PM
How dare you associate the story of a missing person with this forsaken title.
This is a tragic tale, and all the author has to say for it is that she is "black and missing"
Shame on you.
I hope the family can find peace, no matter what the outcome.
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By: b on 1/08/2011 9:40AM
First and foremost my prayers go out to the family of Ms. Barnes, may the Lord provide the family and law enforcement the tools they need to bring her home.
Secondly, for those of you that have shown displeasure with the title of this article, I'm afraid you missed the point. The title is simply reminding us of the disparity of how main stream media fails to report cases of missing Black children.
Finally, you should be appalled by the lack of coverage by main stream media, so much in fact that you become vigilant in finding our missing brothers and sisters! Look a little bit closer at every child you see and stay prayerful!
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By: a on 1/08/2011 11:22AM
Her mom seemed very angry, not worried on TV. Everyone has different ways of expressing emotions.
Phylicia if you are out there, Don't worry about mom or dad or anyone. Its your life no explanations beyond the police are needed, your 16 and can be on your own if need be, parents either respect you bounderies, forgive your weakness or give love or they don't. Unless you are a captive you don't have to stay in an questionable situation, there is help.
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By: keep the Faith on 1/09/2011 1:40PM
Lets put our heart together and pray for the safe return of this precious child back home. I made a copy of the missing article and saved her pic in my blackberry and sent out msg's for all my friends and family and ask them to forward to their friends and families and continue the chain. I also wrote to CNN and Mr. Rev Al Sharpton about this case. I hope to get some positive response but I feel that if we all bombard CNN with emails, they will finally hear us and put this child's news on one of their shows. people have to make noise. Come on people, lets unite and help find this child!!!!
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By: true on 1/09/2011 1:57PM
Missing White Woman Syndrome
The tendency for media coverage to follow the murder, kidnapping or disappearance of only young, pretty, thin, conventional, heterosexual middle-class or higher white women, because they draw audiences where male, lesbian, fat, homely, minority, poor, disabled and/or older victims do not. When all other factors are equal, you are far more likely to find coverage of a young white woman's disappearance than of an old black man's. Compare, for instance, coverage and name recognition for the cases of Natalee Holloway, Lori Hacking, Laci Peterson, Maddie McCann, Chandra Levy, Elizabeth Smart, and Audrey Seiler with the cases of Tamika Huston, LaToyia Figueroa, Lottie Wise, and Kenji Ohmi.
It's a very, very nasty trope, but not because it implies that pretty white missing women are victims. They often are, because serial killers do in Real Life target young women. It's nasty because it implies that other missing persons are lesser victims or even not victims at all: in other words, their fate matters less because random strangers care less about them. Worse still, there's also the assumption that missing persons who don't fit this Trope have brought their fate upon themselves because they are flawed, and flawed people must be bad in some way; think about that one for a moment.
The origin of the term is unclear. Although Professor Sheri Parks of the University of Maryland claims to have coined it circa 2005, it apparently has been in use among journalists (and FARK.com) for years before that. It's also been referred to as "missing pretty girl syndrome" and "damsel in distress syndrome". Although it appears to be a primarily American phenomenon, a similar coverage bias is reported to exist in the United Kingdom, and some people believe Canada and Australia have a similar disinterest in the fate of missing First Nations and Aboriginal women.
Ironically, before about 1990 it was almost impossible to get the police (let alone the media) interested in a missing person unless he was white, rich, male, and over 30. It was assumed that any woman under 40 who disappeared had either run away or had gone to have a dirty weekend somewhere. There are even documented cases of police officers throwing out missing persons reports the moment families left the station house.
For much more information, including a detailed breakdown of the coverage cycle and links to dozens of cases, see this article at Wikipedia. This column at CNN.com has some thoughts on it, and in the years since this trope entry was first written many more writers have weighed in on the topic.
Strangely, national media attention over missing pretty white women hasn't translated to an increased chance of finding missing pretty white women, but it has created the impression that most missing persons are pretty white women. This is, of course, not the case: the average missing person is over 40 and has a medical condition. (In the 1990s the average missing person was male, but these days it's about 50/50 due to a quirk of demographics having to do with World War II, of all things.) It's also resulted in increased ratings for sensationalist television news programs (along with the complete dependence on former rolling news network HLN on these stories), but you knew that already.
Beyond 60 Minutes, which pretty much has made it clear it doesn't cover these stories, these stories are almost singularly to blame for the decline in American network news-magazines, which can do these stories very cheaply just using interns, production assistants, and a reporter phoning it in by just sponging off what their network affiliate tells them about the story (including giving them a majority of the footage they've recorded) rather than the multiple people and hours involved with the research and execution of an average news-magazine story. Morning news shows also depend on these stories to drive viewers in.
Worse still, said networks will often place reruns of these Missing White Woman docudramas in timeslots where cheap Filler is called for. And this counts as news programming toward their FCC license...and their budgets.
The most likely ignored missing person is the Disposable Sex Worker. Presumably the inspiration for the Trope is the White Knighting mind-set.
Compare If It Bleeds It Leads.
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