Re: Missing Teen in the Boston area

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Sorry for the off topic but was asked to post anywhere that could help

Relatives hold out hope for missing teen

By Fuller, Globe Correspondent, 7/16/2003

With each passing day, Dorothy McMorrow wonders where her 16-year-old

granddaughter might have gone. Along with her husband, , McMorrow of

Bourne has scoured Boston neighborhoods distributing missing person fliers

with

Krystle's face.

McMorrow tries to avoid watching television. She said there's too much bad

news.

But last night she made an exception to watch ''Larry King Live'' as her

granddaughter's photo was broadcast after the National Center for Missing

and

Exploited Children championed her case.

Krystle J. McMorrow disappeared from the Southwest Corridor Park at Green

and

Lamartine streets in Jamaica Plain at about 2 p.m. on May 17.

Her grandmother said Krystal was on a walk with staff and other patients

from

Arbour Hospital, a psychiatric facility, where she had lived since late

April.

Krystle was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder when she was 5.

She

moved in with her grandparents when she was 7, after her mother, who was

battling mental illness, was unable to care for her and her older sister,

McMorrow said. The teenager has also battled depression and eating

disorders.

''When she came to live with us, she sort of blossomed,'' McMorrow said.

Boston police are treating Krystle's disappearance as a runaway.

''Unfortunately with runaways it's kind of tough,'' said Sergeant Detective

Darrin Greeley. ''Sometimes kids don't want to be found. It's a

heartbreaker,

but we deal with it all the time.''

McMorrow said her granddaughter had run away once before for just a few

hours

from another placement. She came back herself. But McMorrow said she can't

imagine the shy and quiet teenager navigating Boston's streets.

''All this time I'm thinking she just walked away, but I'm beginning to

think

maybe she was taken,'' McMorrow said. ''She's very kind of withdrawn. I just

don't see her having all the kind of skills to survive on the streets.''

Krystle, who is 5-foot-8 and about 125 pounds, had cornrowed her brown

shoulder-length hair just days before she disappeared. She was last seen

wearing

a black hooded sweatshirt with baggy navy blue pants, with a red patch on

one of

the knees, McMorrow said.

In the meantime, McMorrow hopes that the national exposure will help her

find

Krystle.''I think someday when she gets it all together, she'll be someone

who

will really make a difference,'' McMorrow said. ''We've just got to help

her get

it all together.''

This story ran on page B3 of the Boston Globe on 7/16/2003.

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