Where is Phylicia Simone Barnes? Young black teen missing in Baltimore

Missing Person: Phylicia Simone Barnes, 16 year old female. Last seen @ 6500 block of Eberle Dr. If located call 911.

**BALTIMORE POLICE DEPARTMENT**

seeks your help in locating a missing "at risk" person:

Phylicia Simone Barnes

F/B/16/1-12-94)

5'8 / 120 LBS

Last seen: 6500 block of Eberle Dr.

The Baltimore Police Department needs your help in locating a the above listed missing person. She was last seen on 28 DEC 10 at 1330 hrs. She was last seen at 6520 Eberle Dr. Apt. 101. She was wearing navy blue pea coat with hood, turquoise thermal shirt, blue jeans, white slippers/boots, and a caramel colored purse.

Anyone with information, please contact 911.

***

African American teen, Phylicia Simone Barnes, has been missing since Christmas Day, 2010, from the Baltimore area. Local police officials have publicly aired their dissatisfaction with the dearth of national media coverage of the case and have suggested that racism might explain the lack of national interest.[1] Research on racism in the news media seems to verify these concerns [2][3]. Understandably Ms. Barnes's mother is downplaying the racism issue; she views it as a distraction from the efforts to find her missing daughter.[4] GI

Ghetto Notes: 

[1] Police: National Media Needed in Search for Missing North Carolina Teen Phylicia Barnes
[2] Mass Media and Racism by Stephen Balkaran
[3] Racism and Mainstream Media by John Cohen
[4] Hulu - NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams: Search Continues for Phylicia Barnes

Media criticized on response to case of missing N.C. teen

Story not getting much play because she's black? Mother pleads for help

NBC News and news services
updated 1/18/2011 8:58:37 PM ET 2011-01-19T01:58:37

MONROE, N.C. — The mother of a missing North Carolina teen is pleading for information about her 16-year-old daughter in a case police say might have gained more media attention if the girl had been white.

Phylicia Simone Barnes disappeared while spending Christmas break with relatives in Baltimore, her mother, Janice Sallis of Monroe, N.C., told NBC News on Tuesday.

She last talked to Phylicia on Christmas Day, just three days before she disappeared from her half-sister's apartment in northwest Baltimore.

"I told her how sad that I was because all of the children were gone and that next year, they're not going to be able to go because I was lonely without them. And she said, 'Mommy, I miss you, too,'" Sallis said.

Her disappearance has been reported in local media, NBC's TODAY show and CNN. But a Baltimore police official told NBC News that had the missing person been white, the case might have received even more media attention, perhaps aiding investigators in finding a suspect.

"I think the question has to be asked. It's not my position, I don't know what goes into these decisions, but this is Baltimore's Natalee Holloway case," said Anthony Guglielmi, spokesman for the Baltimore Police Department. Holloway, then 18, disappeared in 2005 while on a high school graduation trip to Aruba. Her remains have never been found.

Guglielmi said he and "the commander of the homicide unit had been prepared to go on CNN's Nancy Grace but got bumped for an hour-long report on a missing Texas cheerleader," The Baltimore Sun reported.

"Day two, day three, when we were putting information out about Phylicia's disappearance, we were talking about birds falling out of the sky in Arkansas," Guglielmi said in an interview with CNN, The Charlotte Observer reported. "And this girl's in danger. And she needs help. And it was very frustrating for my office to see an anemic response from our national media partners."

Nearly 100 officers — from city, state and federal agencies — joined in the search for Phylicia, a popular, straight-A student who was reported missing Dec. 28. There has been no sign of her since. No cell phone calls or use, no use of her credit cards, and no updates to her Facebook page.

Guglielmi said detectives believe the teen may have been abducted, in part because of items she left at the apartment. Police described the apartment as a flop-house for college students. Janice Sallis told a North Carolina newspaper that at least 20 men had stayed at the house during her child's stay,

"We're doing everything we can do," Guglielmi told The Baltimore Sun. "We're basically at square one with the investigation. It's not like we have forensic evidence to guide us. The key here will be community intelligence."

Barnes is from Monroe, N.C., about 25 miles southeast of Charlotte. Her mother said her daughter was on track to graduate early from a charter school and had been applying to colleges.

Two congressmen also pleaded to the public to help solve the disappearance. Reps. Elijah Cummings of Maryland and Larry Kissell of North Carolina issued a joint statement asking the public to contact Baltimore police immediately with any information about Barnes' whereabouts.

Source: Missing teen: Ignored because she's black?  msnbc.com

Missing teen Phylicia Simone Barnes

tags: baltimore, missing but not forgotten, north carolina