Search Continues For Missing Miramar Teen Naketa Leiba

As volunteers join authorities in the search for a Miramar teenager missing since Wednesday, her mother is wondering if a man who stalked the girl last fall is involved in her disappearance.

Naketa Leiba, 17, told her parents that between August and November, an older man in a Toyota Camry would harass her as she got off her school bus, the Sun-Sentinel reports.

"He trailed behind her and would ask for her name, if she wanted a ride," Sharon Leiba told the Sun-Sentinel, adding that the family contacted police and a male friend began escorting Naketa home. But now, Sharon Leiba fears the man may have something to do with her daughter's disappearance.

"I think she was abducted," Sharon Leiba said. "My daughter is not a runaway."

The South Broward High School senior hasn't been seen since Wednesday, when she called her mother to be picked up after school at her bus stop near A.C. Perry Elementary School along Southwest 34th Street and 68th Avenue. Sharon Leiba was unable to leave work, she said, and asked her daughter to walk home.

But when Leiba arrived at the house an hour later, Naketa hadn't yet made it home.

"I called at about 4:20, and she said 'Oh, mom, I'm on the way,'" Leiba told NBCMiami. "And when I heard 'on the way,' I heard a crackle or something and then her phone went dead."

Leiba said that was the last contact she had with Naketa.

"I kept getting voicemail," she told WSVN. "I'm like, that doesn't feel too good. So I re-dialed and got the voicemail, so I said, 'Alright, let me just wait a few minutes. She probably stopped by some friend's [home] or is slowly walking.' And that was it, just never heard from her again."

Sunday, volunteers fanned out in the area of Pembroke Road and 42nd Avenue, where police said they pinpointed Naketa Leiba's last cell phone transmission. And on Monday, they were canvassing again, looking for any sign of the 5'2" college hopeful, who was last seen in a short-sleeved red Abercrombie & Fitch shirt and jeans.

"I can't sleep!" said her father, Michael Leiba. "Because I know she's out there and I can't sleep. And I'm trying to lie down and I hear screaming in my head. And I can hear her screaming in my head."

Comments

[QuinnSmith]

09:44 PM on 02/10/2012

I hope the police will give more attention on this kind of incident so that abduction can be minimized. I have to walk home from school really late some nights and don't feel safe. My parents also worry about me but they both work. However I found this blog with a new safety app. It has allowed me to feel safer all the time: http://www.radicalparenting.com/2011/08/07/awesome-phone-safety-device-for-teens-safekidzone/

[looking4wrd]

08:04 AM on 02/08/2012

update: just heard on the radio that this teen was found, safe and sound at her friend's house, stated she had a fight with her mom. can't find any other info at this time.

[Q2U]

09:19 PM on 02/07/2012

I cried when I read how the father hears screaming (but I hope if he reads this, he can know that that in 2 Tim in the Bible it says a scripture about ..GOD HAS NOT GIVEN US THE SPIRIT OF FEAR..BUT OF POWER AND OF LOVE AND OF A SOUND MIND..so whatever is not those things..is not of God, so don't live in that, don't ruminate on that. Don't keep giving it your mind...or time. You gotta rebuke it IN THE NAME OF JESUS every time it tries to torment you until it stops. I could only stop and pray for her and them.

[VA Jill]

01:19 PM on 02/06/2012

The only question is why didn't she get his license number and report him?

[ms.understood]

06:41 AM on 02/07/2012

if she knew the stalker was still around, why didn't she have a family member or family friend to pick her up from the bus stop on the days she couldn't leave work? this is horrible to say i know, but the mom and dad were kind of complacent in her disappearance, especially when knowing that there's so sick person stalking a kid.