MISSOURI CITY, Texas — Editor's note: The girl was found safe on March 1, 2024. The original story is below with the girl's name edited out.
The missing 12-year-old girl at the center of a Houston-area AMBER Alert could be a trafficking victim, according to police who said additional information they gathered Wednesday led them to the theory.
The girl was last seen on Thursday, Feb. 22. Her mother said the last conversation she remembers having with her daughter was asking her to be woken up early for school the following day.
“Thirty, 35 minutes after, my daily routine I go check my kids’ room to make sure they’re OK or whatnot, and she wasn’t there,” the mother said.
She reported her daughter missing Friday, Feb. 23, though an AMBER Alert wasn't issued until five days later.
“Everybody is depressed," the mother said. "It’s depressing at this moment because we don’t have anything right now and the AMBER Alert is just being issued out."
According to police, home surveillance video shows a girl, who appeared to be the missing girl, running toward a dark Dodge Ram on Waterchase Drive in Missouri City around 1:40 a.m. Friday. The video then cuts off.
On Thursday, police said E'minie may be on a social media app called Tagged. They believe she might still be in the Missouri City area.
The mother said she was unsure why her daughter would leave.
“Not knowing where she is, what’s going on with her, if she’s OK, if she’s harmed if she’s alive, very heartbreaking,” she said.
The mother said she loved dancing and sharing content on social media. The two shared a TikTok account but her daughter didn't have a cellphone. The mother said she left the house with her Andriod tablet.
"That's what we were trying to see if we can find somebody to at least track the tablet down or try to find a way to get inside the tablet," she said.
Though the girl didn't have a cellphone, Jennifer Hill with Houston's Children's Assessment Center warns parents that people have access to children all the time, often through social media.
"...it can be through games that children are playing online," Hill said. "A lot of times it can even be through schools themselves...it's something that we have to worry about every day and have open communication with our children about because we want to make sure that they know those dangers rather than just encountering them."
Hill went on to explain why human trafficking has become so popular, with Texas having the second highest cases of reported incidents.
“So unlike trafficking a drug, for example, children are able to be used over and over again when they're sold for sex. So in that way, it can be a lot more profitable than selling drugs that are only used one time," said Hill.
The girl was last seen wearing a white crop top and pink joggers. She is described as being about 4 feet, 6 inches tall and weighs about 100 pounds. She has brown eyes and black hair.
Her mother said the girl loves to cook, make TikToks and hairstyling.
“She’s the boss," the mother said. "She runs everything and it’s just so hard. It hurts."
