Published: November 03, 2009 10:21 am      

Search is on for Texas teenager

Local police have joined the search for a missing Texas teenager who is believed to have returned to McAlester.

McAlester police are now assisting police in Baytown, Texas, in the search for Gabrelle Deputy, 17, who is reported to have run away from home on Oct. 31.

Police officer Dillon Munholland has been trying to locate the missing girl, said McAlester Police Det. Capt. Don Hass.

“She’s on the National Crime Information Center” which lists runaways and missing persons, Hass said.

Crime Stoppers will offer a reward for any information that leads to locating the missing teen, Hass said this morning. Callers can remain anonymous and can contact Crime Stoppers at 1 (800) 222-8477.

Baytown Police Det. Iveleth Hernandez said today that the teenager was last known to have been seen in Baytown on Oct. 30 and that she was reported missing on Oct. 31.

“She left a note saying she’s going home to McAlester to live with her mother,” Hernandez said. She lived with her father in Baytown, according to police.

“She’s 17, technically, she’s considered an adult” in Texas, Hernandez said. However, “In Texas, parents are responsible for their children until they turn 18 or finish high school, whichever is last,” Hernandez said.

She described the missing teen as five feet, four inches tall, weighing 125 pounds, with a fair complexion and a slim build,

William Roberts, who identified himself as Deputy’s father, reported the teenager missing and also contacted the News-Capital about the matter.

Roberts said that the family had once lived in McAlester and that Deputy still has other friends and family, including her mother, in the city. He said he has a court order preventing her from having unsupervised contact with one of the family members in McAlester. She is to have absolutely no contact with another family member, Roberts said,

He said it’s also been confirmed that his daughter has been in McAlester in the past few days.

“We lived for three years on East Tyler,” Roberts said. He said he moved to Baytown, which is near Houston, in connection with his job.

Roberts said he thought his daughter was in her room when he got a phone call from one of her friends, who said his daughter had phoned her from a blocked number.

Roberts said the girl gave him a message to go into his daughter’s room — where he thought she was asleep. Inside, he found the room empty and a note telling him she was OK, he said.

It was later confirmed that his daughter obtained a bus ticket from Baytown at 1:50 a.m. and arrived in McAlester at 10:45 a.m. on Oct. 31, he said.

He said the last confirmed sighting of her was at the bus station in McAlester, although he’s also heard reports that she had been seen at a store in McAlester.

In addition to Crime Stoppers, anyone with any information can also contact the McAlester Police Department at 423-1212, Hass said

Contact James Beaty at jbeaty@mcalesternews.com.