A HEARTBROKEN mother has revealed chilling red flags before her 12-year-old daughter vanished without a trace.
Lateefah Smith said that her daughter, Ariyah Garcia-Smith, never revealed that she was unhappy at home before she disappeared on September 21.
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“I saw her in the morning when I was leaving for work,” the mother told PIX11 News.
Smith, who said she works for the Department of Education, added that she never imagined that Ariyah would run away.
However, it was revealed that the young girl was being groomed by an older man for over a year.
Smith said that Ariyah had just started sixth grade at Intermediate School 51 in September 2021 when she suddenly woke up in the middle of the night.
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“It’s late at night; I’m hearing like a man’s voice laughing,” she said.
“When I go in the room, she’s talking to somebody with her shirt off with the laptop from DOE.”
Smith said that she couldn’t see the man’s face because it was blurred while he and Ariyah spoke on a chat room called Redden Anime.
She took the computer to school the next day, where officials called the cops and made a report.
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“A week later the cops said it was like a ‘burner phone’,” she said, describing the man.
The computer issue was resolved by the DOE however, Smith said she transferred her daughter from I.S. 51 back in May 2022 following a separate incident.
Ariyah began seventh grade at I.S. 72, about five miles from home but Smith said that the girl’s journal suggested she had been unhappy there.
Aniyah’s phone last pinged on September 21 about a mile away from her home near Mariner’s Harbor public housing.
According to Smith, the family used to live there until about six years ago.
A neighbor, Lisa Smith, said that Ariyah’s mother cries every night since she’s been missing.
“It’s heartbreaking,” she said.
“She’s a sweet little girl. I see her every day. Never any trouble.”
Aniyah’s mother said that she has been riding the Staten Island Ferry every night to look for her daughter while also searching at a local McDonald’s.
She claimed that Ariyah’s school contacted the Administration for Children’s Services after a classmate alleged that Ariyah’s mother neglected her daughter and knew about her 20-year-old “boyfriend.”
Ariyah’s mother said ACS came for a visit but she denied all allegations of abuse or neglect.
Neighbor Lisa Smith said that she has been supporting Ariyah’s mother by posting notices on social media about the girl’s disappearance.
“When I was trying to help post it on the website, I came across a lot of kids that age that are missing,” she said.
“Black American kids…they’ve been missing a long time.”
Ariyah’s mother is begging anyone to come forward with information about her daughter.
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“Whoever has her, let her go,” she said.
“Let her go.”
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