HAMILTON — A Hamilton mother is asking for help finding her missing 16-year-old daughter.
Jasmine Howard was last seen at her Fields Drive home around 11 p.m. Sunday. Her mother, Jacqueline Howard, said Jasmine, a sophomore at Hamilton High School, text messaged a cousin around 4:30 a.m. Monday to say she was “leaving home.”
“From what I was told, it was one guy from Amory and one guy from Aberdeen came to my house and picked her up (Monday) morning,” Howard said this morning.
Those men, according to Howard, are Chris Dobbs, 20, of Amory, and a white male in his 20s from Aberdeen known to Howard only as Timbo.
She has never met either man but said both are friends with Jasmine.
Jacqueline Howard spoke to Dobbs after retrieving the most recent numbers and texts from Jasmine”s phone through their cellular provider.
Dobbs hasn”t spoken to Jasmine in “a while,” and no law enforcement officials have attempted to contact him, he said this morning.
Howard said the Monroe County Sheriff”s Office, Aberdeen Police Department and Amory Police Department have been notified of the details surrounding Jasmine”s disappearance, but no officials were available this morning to confirm an investigation is ongoing.
A third man, Zach Polk, of Amory, was questioned in the case according to Jacqueline Howard. Dobbs, who is Polk”s cousin, confirmed law enforcement officials had visited Polk”s home.
“She ain”t down here with him, either,” said Dobbs, who said Polk likewise had nothing to do with Jacqueline Howard”s disappearance.
A fourth man, Joe Black of Memphis, Tenn., is being sought by authorities for questioning, Dobbs said. Jacqueline Howard said Black”s number was in Jasmine”s phone, but Black claims to have been in Memphis since Saturday.
Jasmine Howard weighs 120 pounds and is 5-foot-3-inches tall with long black hair, normally worn in a pony tail, and glasses. She carries a pink Nike backpack. Jasmine suffers from the sleep disorder narcolepsy.
Jacqueline Howard suspects her daughter may be traveling in a red 1998 Pontiac Grand Am driven by Timbo.
Jason Browne was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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