The parents of a 16-year-old Georgia girl with special needs who has been missing for nearly three weeks are furious that police are treating their daughter’s disappearance like a runaway and fear she could become a victim of sex trafficking.
“Our daughter is missing…gone…disappeared…and it seems no one is looking for her,” Daniel Jones told DailyMail.com on Tuesday. “The police think she’s a runaway.”
He added: “When the police arrived they didn’t search our house properly. They didn’t use search dogs. Nothing. Kaylee is very trusting. Someone lured her away.”
Daniel and Brenda Jones say authorities have done little since their daughter went missing on June 14.
The parents said their daughter has special needs and is on the autism spectrum and needs her daily medication, which she has been off since her disappearance.
Her mother said that although she is 16, she looks much younger. “Mentally she’s like a little kid and wouldn’t know if she was in danger,” her mother said.
Kaylee’s mother said when she spoke with the Carroll County investigator, she asked them to issue a Mattie’s Alert, a statewide emergency alert used for people with disabilities or the elderly.
She said they told them their daughter “didn’t qualify because she was considered a high-functioning autistic.”
“Why isn’t it passed off as Mattie’s Call,” she told DailyMail.com. “It’s appalling that nobody can help.”
Kaylee’s dad chimed in: “It’s crazy. It’s hard to work. It’s hard to be home because she’s not there.’
Brenda said many nonprofits call her to see how they can help, which she said “helps keep us going.”
DailyMail.com reached out to Carroll County Sherriff’s detective Kim Biggs for updates and to confirm some of the details Kaylee’s parents shared, but they didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.
Kaylee Jones, 16, pictured here, was last seen on June 14 in the Whooping Creek Church Road area of Carrollton, Georgia. Kaylee’s parents, Daniel and Brenda Jones, say their daughter has special needs and has not been on medication since her disappearance
Kaylee is 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighs 135 pounds. She has long brown wavy hair and brown eyes, and may have been wearing denim shorts, a T-shirt and black Adidas tennis shoes when she disappeared, officials said. Kaylee is pictured here with one of the horses she rides
A picture of the Georgia country road where Kaylee was reportedly last seen on June 14th
A photo of Kaylee celebrating Mother’s Day with her father Daniel Jones (pictured left) and mother Brenda (center) in Florida in May 2022
A photo of Kaylee and her parents at the Farm Tough Mudder race in 2022
Kaylee was last seen around 11 p.m. on June 14 at her home in rural Carrollton, Georgia.
The missing girl’s parents said the last time they saw their daughter was when they said “good night” to her. The next morning they found their bed empty. More than eight hours had passed.
Rushing to call Kaylee’s father, the distraught mother called the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office for help.
The parents said they believed their daughter climbed out of their second-story window.
They said she didn’t have a cell phone with her because her parents took it away days before she disappeared.
Two days before she disappeared, her parents took away her cell phone because she was communicating with strangers online. After her phone was confiscated, they said she used her laptop.
Omegle was found to be one of the websites Kaylee may have visited.
According to its website, users are randomly paired to socialize in one-on-one chat sessions where they chat anonymously. The site is free and no registration is required.
The parents said Kaylee was very upset about the punishment and they later found out exactly what she was doing behind her back.
“My wife found that she was talking to four or five guys on Snapchat,” he said.
He added: “We didn’t know she was chatting online until she went missing. She hid it from us.”
They also said they had no idea how many people she spoke to online.
Two of the people she met, a 20-year-old boy and a 22-year-old boy, were interrogated by the police and released.
One of the boys told police that Kaylee had snuck out of the house a few weeks ago and that she was in her room the next morning and her parents had no idea.
“We had no idea she had done this, and neither did any of her friends,” Brenda said.
They described their daughter as someone who is very naïve, trusting and prone to online grooming.
Now they fear she may leave the country and become a victim of sex trafficking.
Kaylee (pictured right) rides her horse alongside a peer. Kaylee has special needs and has been off her medication since her disappearance. She didn’t have her cell phone with her when she disappeared
The parents said they had already spent $5,000 on a private investigator in hopes the PI would help find their daughter, but said once the money ran out, their interest in the case also increased.
“We don’t think they were invested or helpful. They did what we could have done,” Brenda said.
Some of the items they said their daughter took were a bank card, her social security card, her birth certificate, and about $30 to $50 in cash, along with two to three outfits and a pair of shoes.
“I checked her bank card and no transactions were made,” Kaylee’s father said.
He added, “She didn’t know she was going to take her social security card and birth certificate without someone telling her.”
Kaylee’s mother recalled another incident in February, when she took her daughter’s phone away.
They said they both worked in the garden and Kaylee left the house because she was “pissed off”, her mum said they then took her phone too.
She was gone four hours, her mother said, and the police brought her back.
“She got into a car with an elderly woman because she was lost and the woman took her to her home and called the police,” she said.
“Scary she got into a stranger’s car, so glad the stranger was good.”
She added: “She doesn’t think she can get hurt. She had a $50 Amazon card with her and thought it was good enough.”
Kaylee is one of five children. She has four brothers aged 19 to 22. Her father called her the “Princess”.
Kalyee pictured with her dog. Kaylee’s parents fear she may be a victim of sex trafficking
Her parents said they moved to Georgia from Florida in August 2021 for better job opportunities and a better life for their daughter. They said their daughter was homeschooled.
“Kaylee, we want you to come home. You are not in trouble. If you’re mad at us for stealing your phone, just let someone know you’re alive,” her father said.
Kaylee’s mom added, “Kaylee you don’t have to go to school in August, we can stay homeschooled and you don’t have to work anymore if you don’t want to.”
Kaylee is 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighs 135 pounds. She has long brown wavy hair and brown eyes, and may have been wearing denim shorts, a T-shirt and black Adidas tennis shoes when she disappeared, officials said.
If anyone has any information, contact investigator Kim Biggs at 770-830-5916 or email kbiggs@carrollsheriff.com