By Staff
Left ‘awkward’ note, her mother says
By Christina Hale
Staff Writer
Chocowinity mother Amy Meynardie said she left her teenage daughter at home Tuesday evening and hasn’t seen her since.
Amanda Gray Jefferson, 16, was reported missing Tuesday to the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office. The Southside High School student is 5’4, 137 pounds with hazel eyes and shoulder-length brown hair.
Capt. Kenneth Watson said the sheriff’s office has interviewed Jefferson’s friends and acquaintances, but has not been able to get information on her whereabouts.
Meynardie said her daughter asked to stay at home to take a shower while Meynardie went to a nearby store and to visit a family member. When Meynardie returned to their home on Whichard’s Beach Road, the door was locked and her daughter had left an “awkward note,” she said.
The note was dated Aug. 3, although Meynardie found it on Aug. 7. “She said ‘I’m leaving to stay with friends and it’s because of you,’” Meynardie said.
Meynardie found this unusual because “we talked about everything.”
Her daughter has a distinctive handwriting, she said. “It was completely different from her handwriting.”
Meynardie and her husband have seven children, including Jefferson. “She’s very close to her little sister,” Meynardie said.
Meynardie signed a form at the sheriff’s office, giving deputies permission “to take her into physical custody and return her to the home,” Watson said.
Meynardie said, “They’re thinking she’s a runaway. I don’t, but I’m the mama.
Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Amanda Gray Jefferson can call the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office at 946-7111.