Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - FIND Aubrey: Parents of  Lehigh Valley girl, 14,  FEAR Daughter SEX TRAFFICKED 

Episode Date: February 25, 2025

A Pennsylvania family is worried sick about 14-year-old Enci “Aubrey” Wu, who disappeared six weeks ago. Aubrey’s parents say based on her secret social media use, Aubrey could be anywhere from California to Saudi Arabia. Her parents terrified she was lured out of their home by a predator and may be a victim of sex-trafficking.   Just over six months after Aubrey gets her own phone, her parents discover a second, older iPhone hidden in her room. When confronted, Aubrey admits she convinced a boy at school to give it to her, and he told his parents he lost it. Aubrey paid for a new iCloud account to use on the phone, bypassing both her parents’ blocks and rules on when she can use a phone. Aubrey’s extremely upset when her parents take both phones away and ground her.   10:00 p.m.,  January 10th,  Palmer Township PD knock on Aubrey Wu’s door, asking her parents to wake her up for a welfare check. Officers say Aubrey’s boyfriend, a boy the parents don’t know, begged his parents to call police, as he hadn’t heard from Aubrey in more than 24 hours. Stepfather John Gehrmann calls upstairs for Aubrey several times—but receives no answer. The family’s security cameras reveal Aubrey crawled out her bedroom window, crept across the roof, shimmied down a grate, and disappeared into a back alley behind their home more than three hours ago.  Where is Aubrey? Joining Nancy Grace today: John Gehrmann - Stepdad Jade Wu -  Mother  Alexandria “Ally” Crouthamel  -  Attorney for Aubrey Wu's Family, Attorney at Crouthamel Law Offices Anna Sonoda  - Child sex abuse, Grooming expert, Clinical Social Worker, Counsels convicted sex offenders, Author, “Duck Duck Groom” Caryn Stark  -  Psychologist, renowned TV and Radio trauma expert and consultant, www.carynstark.com, Instagram: carynpsych, FB: Caryn Stark Private Practice Brian Fitzgibbons  - Director of Operations for USPA Nationwide Security, Leads a team of investigators specializing in locating missing persons, website: www.uspasecurity.com, Instagram: @uspa_nationwide_security  Alicia Kozakiewicz - Survivor of an abduction as a teen via internet site. Motivational speaker and internet safety expert, aliciakozak.com, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube: @ItsAliciaKozak Sydney Sumner  - Crime Online Investigative Reporter  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Please help us find Aubrey. The parents of a missing Lehigh Valley girl are pleading for your help tonight. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. Police desperately searching for a missing 14-year-old amidst a family's fears of sex trafficking.

Joining us, an all-star panel to make sense of what we are learning about missing Aubrey tonight. As the days pass, her parents are desperate and they are joining us now. Straight out to John Gurman joining us, her stepdad and her mom, Jade, to both of you. Thank you for being with us, John. From what you have told me, there was no indication at all that Aubrey would just run away and disappear. Why are you concerned Aubrey could be sex trafficked? Thank you, Nancy. Our concerns are, they stem from the fact that we learned that there was extensive use of a hotspot in our home from a real phone that we provided her that had multiple layers of parental controls. Saturday morning, one of Aubrey's closest friend, if not her closest friend,

provided us feedback that she had tried to reach out to Aubrey. I said to her, well, I have Aubrey's phone and I don't see an inbound call or a text. And the young girl uttered the phrase to us that is the beginning of our living nightmare here, which is I contacted your daughter through her secret Snapchat. And she proceeded to give us. Whoa, whoa, wait, wait. Guys with me, Aubrey's mom and stepdad, Jade and John.

You just it felt like you put a dagger in my heart. Secret Snapchat. Hold on just a moment. Joining me is a special guest, Anna Sunoda, a grooming expert. Snapchat can be innocent, but it can also be every parent's worst nightmare in a nutshell. Because remember, Anna, you're very well versed in all of this digital, the digital scare parents live through. In a nutshell, what is Snapchat? What is he talking about? Nancy, Snapchat is one of the most popular apps that teens are using these days to not only share messages but also

share pictures and videos. The unique part about Snapchat is that whatever you send, you get it, and then it disappears. However, we all know that it still lives on in the cloud and on the web itself, but this is an app that is used by most teenagers connected through smart devices, and it is a playground for potential predators. Yeah, you know, it can be innocent too, Anna, because the other day, the twins sent out a Snapchat to a group about a homecoming get together. And it can be useful and wonderful, and they keep in touch that way. But you're right. It disappears virtually as soon as you send it. And it's among other media platforms is very popular. If anybody says email, just wipe that out of your mind.

Twins, preteens, teens, that's a thing of the past. Don't even say FB Facebook, forget it. Not happening. They don't care. It's over for them. Maybe you and your friends all do Facebook. They don't back to John Gurman and Jade, the mom and stepfather of this little girl to Jade. This is Aubrey's mom, Jade. What went through your mind when you realized Aubrey was not in her room? Just the week that she left, she was good morning, good night, love you, mom, love you, dad. And discover her disappearance and knowing the next day of the Snapchat, we know it's very bad news and the nightmare begins. What were you telling you at the hotspot and Snapchat, what you learned, because as Jade, Mom, is telling us, right before she disappears, she's like, I love you, Mom. I love you guys, and goes to bed. That's Opry. Most nights, actually,

we have to fight her off. She's going to bed. She says, good night. I love you, over and over. It's very endearing of her. She is a very loving and kind young girl, and she wants to hear it back. She doesn't want us to nod and just go, uh-huh, okay. Sometimes I can be a little bit like that, and Aubrey would just come over, give her mom a big hug, give me a hug, and say, all right, guys, I'm going to bed. And yeah, I agree with Jade. We were very blindsided. But I know your question is about

the hotspot. So the night before that, we did have an opportunity to take Aubrey. She had dance class that evening. So we took her out to eat our favorite spot. We like to go to a Popeye's. We get some chicken. We sit in the parking lot, listen to some music. And that's our space. And we began to talk. And the conversation was a little difficult, a little bit more difficult than usual, getting to the truth of some of the things where we were talking about. So we asked for Aubrey's cell phone. And right away, some things looked off. There was no recent phone calls for the prior month.

There was no recent text messages for the prior month. And to know Aubrey is to know Aubrey is a social butterfly. There ever was one and all winter break, she had been going out to the mall, to the library. So we were a little concerned that we saw like the lack of coordination on her phone. So as Jade and her are talking, I grabbed my phone, which gives me the billing details. And actually, surprisingly, the calls and the texts, they match up. So I'm actually thinking, okay, this is good. And then I noticed there's a third tab on my bill that I've never

seen before, which is hotspot. Now, in our own home, we have Wi-Fi. Jade and I both work remotely from home. So I was a little surprised to see that there was a hotspot being used on the account. So I went into the details. And when I clicked on the details, and now this is January 9th, my ninth day on a 30-day billing cycle, a 23-page result is returned to me. So immediately, I turned to Jade in the front seat of the car, and I said, Jade, we've got a major problem. Just kind of whispering between parents here. I turned to Aubrey, and I handed her my phone, and I said, I'd like you to help us understand why there's 21 pages of hotspot activity. And let's start with what the device is. It's trying to cut right to the chase. But Nancy, unfortunately, that conversation, we didn't get to the end state of any acknowledgement that there was even a device in our house. And it was a challenging conversation for us.

And we've had many of these. Oh my goodness. Do you know how much I hate confronting the twins over being on the phone too much? I have to practically wrestle it away from my son. They're both 17, they're twins, at the dinner table, which is a major no-no. And he'll say, mom, I'm just fill in the

blank. And it always seems so legit. I'm checking what time the game is. I'm this, I'm that, but it's, they're attached to it. I actually think it's some psychological thing. And I'm going to go to our shrink in just a moment, but this is what we learned about the additional tab. Listen. Just over six months after Aubrey gets her own phone, her parents discover a second older iPhone hidden in her room. When confronted, Aubrey admits she convinced a boy at school to give it to her, and he told his parents he lost it.

Aubrey's extremely upset when her parents take both phones away and ground her. After school, Aubrey only comes out for a quiet dinner, then goes straight back upstairs. Aubrey's parents tuck in for an early night, assuming Aubrey has done the same behind her closed bedroom door. As I mentioned earlier, we have an all-star panel joining with Aubrey's parents, trying our best to help bring this 14-year-old little girl home. Her parents, and you'll learn

why. Fear that she has been sex trafficked. Joining me right now, a longtime colleague that I now consider a friend, Alicia Kozakiewicz. She goes by Alicia Kozak and she is the survivor of a teen abduction. She was lured via the internet. She was held hostage, abused, beaten. And it was the evening her kidnapper had planned to kill her. After sharing images of her to other pedophiles, one of the pedophiles felt sorry for her and called police. That is how her life was saved within hours of her death. Her being with us is a miracle.

And tonight we have a chance to save another young girl, Aubrey. Alicia, I don't know how you manage to tell your story over and over, bringing up the worst thing that has ever happened to you. How were you as a little girl lured online? Yes, Nancy, I am so lucky to be here. And it's a really hard story to share that I've been sharing since I was 14 years old. And it is such an important story to share because it's what so many kids are facing today. When I was 13, I was really shy. I was quiet. I was the good kid.

I was curious. I was just a kid, but I was vulnerable as all kids are. And predators are seeking out kids who are vulnerable, which unfortunately all kids are vulnerable. And so what they do is they look for those vulnerabilities to exploit, and they groom and act as though they are a friend. And it's really so simple. It's just being into what the child is into saying what the child wants to hear versus what they need to hear

always being there for them always on their side always somebody that they can count on somebody who makes them laugh somebody who makes them feel connected and somebody who feels like they know the real them we have so many different versions of ourselves especially as kids we have the us at school the us at the dinner table the us at church dinner table, the us at church, the us here, the us there. But who is the real you? And kids are still trying to figure out certainly who they are. They're trying to figure out what they like, literally their identity. And predators come in, swoop in and say, well, I know the real you.

And I think the real you is amazing while they're trying to discover all this. And it slowly breaks down boundaries. And they are so good at doing what they do. It's amazing to me, Alicia Kozakevich, that you were very loved by your family. You loved them back. But you met a friend online that first posed as a girl and later said, hey, I'm really a boy. But, you know, I was just trying to get close to you. And I think you talked to me. If you knew I was a boy, blah, blah, blah.

And so you overlook that. Adults wouldn't do that. Children would. And then one night around Christmas time, you're sitting at the table having dinner. It starts very lightly snowing outside. And your friend says, come meet me outside. And between dinner and dessert, you vanish. Yeah, and that's something that I talk to children about definitely and to adults is that I felt so loved.

I knew I was loved. I had such a close relationship with my family. And yet, deep down, I still felt lonely. And that loneliness was one of my big vulnerabilities. And on New Year's Day 2002, I agreed to meet this person, which was completely out of my character. Like I said, I was really shy. I was really quiet. I was a kid who didn't raise their hand in class. I wasn't the kid who would go to walk to the grocery store. I was a very quiet at home kind of kid. And what predators do is they are able to wear down who a child is in so many ways and to change who they are characteristically and get them to do things that they would never do. If you had talked to me the night before this happened and said, hey, Alicia, this is what you're going to do in the future. I would say absolutely not.

I would never do that. I'm so much smarter than that. I'm so much more careful than that. And yet on that night against every bit of who I am, I went against that because that's how good predators are at what they do. Alicia, within 10 minutes of leaving the supper table, where did you find yourself? I found myself in this man's car and he began driving from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where I lived, to Virginia, where he held me captive in his basement dungeon. A Pennsylvania family is worried sick about 14-year-old NC Aubrey Wu, who disappeared six weeks ago. Aubrey's parents say based on her secret social media use,

Aubrey could be anywhere from California to Saudi Arabia. Her parents terrified she was lured out of their home by a predator and may be a victim of sex trafficking. Pennsylvania teen NC AubC. Aubrey Wu critically missing as a search intensifies after the 14-year-old girl was last seen at home over six weeks ago. We may have a chance to bring Aubrey home alive. Look at her. Here is the number to call if you think, even think you have seen her. 610-759-2200. Repeat, 610-759-220. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.

Her parents joining us tonight. Now, the dad and mom just told you that they took her phone away when they realized she had a secret phone. And then she didn't like it, of course. And then this. Hello. Hello. Yeah. Is Nancy here? Yeah, I saw her daughter. Is she here? She, I think she should be. Hold on. Hold on. Her mom and I are here. Yeah. All right. All right. Hold on one second. Let me throw a light out for you. Thank you very much. Hey, Aubrey? Aubrey!

John Gurman calls upstairs for Aubrey several times, but receives no answer. The family's security cameras reveal Aubrey crawled out her bedroom window. Oh, my stars. Straight back out to the parents joining us. Mom, Jade, stepdad john what did you guys think when you go to the door and it's police john what were police doing at your door and we see you still in your bathrobe start calling aubrey aubrey come down what what did they tell you why were they looking for your girl well uh yeah thanks for the question, Nancy. You know, that video shows me at the front door, but actually what woke us up because we do take

a nap and use a sound machine. They were banging on our bedroom windows on the side of our house. They were banging on our back door. So actually, I first checked the back door thinking maybe it was just some kids in the neighborhood, you know, kind of goofing around. And that's why I have my bathrobe on. I go to the door. But when I look through the blinds, I see police lights lit up all around our property. It was about five squad cars out there. And then as soon as I hollered up to her, that actually I wasn't so worried. Honestly, Nancy Aubrey has a tendency to be in her room with headphones on listening to music. It is Friday night. So I just thought maybe she didn't hear me. And then I asked Jane to go upstairs and check. But when Jade said she's not there, that is a feeling that I don't ever want to feel again.

I don't want any other parent to have to feel it was uh it i mean it brings me to tears now even to talk about it it's just uh in this moment when we know she's not there and that window nancy um it is configured to only open as much for a window fan so it's maybe only eight inches of an opening so and it goes out onto a rickety old roof that probably hasn't had a new shingle at it since 1930 when it was built. So it's very dangerous. It's not even just, you know, like she's got to go onto one roof. Then she's got to climb or jump onto the adjoining roof and then climb over this tiny balcony where our neighbor keeps a big grill. And it's a lot. I was actually quite stunned. At first, until we got our neighbor's camera, Jade and I were actually completely puzzled as

to how she left the house and we didn't see it on our cameras. Because I kept telling Jade that opening is just small. And then we saw the footage. So she really, you know, would have had a difficult time getting out of that window. That's for sure. And it was really unsafe. Joining me now is Karen Stark, renowned psychologist, TV, radio trauma expert. You can find her at KarenStark.com. Joining us from Manhattan today. Karen, thank you for being with us. I'm going to circle back in a moment to Anna Sonoda, who wrote Duck, Duck, Groom. But Karen, I get the sense that a cell phone, and here we see the parents gave her a cell phone just before her birthday. But before that, she had convinced a little boy at school to give her his cell phone, okay. And tell his mom he lost it. Smart girl. And she

created, I guess, a hotspot to use that phone, right? Because it didn't have internet service. So she arranged for there to be internet service. So when dad is looking at her phone and comparing it to his bill and seeing big chunks of time, she's not using her cell when she goes to the mall or wherever she goes, she's not texting or anything. It's because she's on this secret phone. And what I'm getting at with you is I swear sometimes I feel that cell phones, uh, the internet, TikTok adults do it too. My best friend from law school, every time I look at him, he's looking at his phone. I'm like, he's looking at his phone. I'm like, Frank, get off your phone.

You're with actual people right now. It's an addiction like drinking or drugs, Karen. Without a doubt, Nancy. Phones, anything with social media, that's taken over our culture. That's how everybody who is young interacts with each other. And here we're talking about a really smart little girl who understood how to get around rules, who was rebellious. Maybe she felt that the constraints were too tight on her. None of this is unusual for a teenager. But keep in mind that their brains are not fully developed. They really don't understand things in a complex way. It's black

or white. So here she is, and she is manipulating the system and believing that what she's doing is okay, that she doesn't understand negative consequences. You just don't. That's why it's so hard to get to teenagers. You have to be able to level. And now that phones have taken over and everyone is constantly looking at them. That's the whole culture when it comes to your children and everyone's children. You know, Anna's noted she's right. Anna, this is what I've learned. There's no spanking, no hitting, no go to your room at our home. If we want to make a point, which is, I've got to say, let me knock on wood is rare because the twins are super, well, they're practically perfect. I'll just put it that way. But that's all, that's what these parents thought too. They had never had trouble with her.

She's great, great, sweet, loving the works. But if you take their phone, it's like you've poured acid on them. I think it's some sort of an addiction. And the way that she behaved, the way she reacted when the parents took her phone is entirely normal. She was angry. She went to her room. She came out that evening. She had a very quiet dinner, went back to her room.

And the next morning, the cops were at the door when the little friend can't find her. Yeah. Nancy, everything you're highlighting here indicates that this is a normal teenage girl and normal teenage girls have struggles. They have challenges, whether in their homes or at school with friends and just with their own identities as they're going through adolescence. it's not uncommon to see that teens will turn to the internet and apps and people that they meet online for support, for validation. And unfortunately, predators are well positioned to arm themselves in a position of availability in the space that's available to them, even still, parents look and think, oh, my child's at home. They are safe because they're not outside. But all the while, they're accessing the internet from the comfort of their bedrooms or their homes themselves.

And this is a risk factor that all families need to be aware of, just like this family was aware of it. That's why they have parenting controls. And unfortunately, no level of monitoring is enough when predators know exactly how to infiltrate the minds and spirits of our young people. Hello? Can I help you? Yeah. Is Nancy here? Yeah, I saw her door.

Is she here? She should be. Hold on. Hold on. Her mom and I are hitting a nap. That's quite all right. All right, hold on one second. Let me throw a light out for you.

Thank you very much. Hey, Aubrey? Aubrey? Your call has been forwarded to voicemail. The person you're trying to reach is not available. At the tone, please record your message. When you have finished recording, you may hang up. Ma'am, I am in for you as an adult. You have my 14-year-old stepdaughter in your custody illegally. There you hear Aubrey's parents begging an older white female to get in touch with them about Aubrey. Now, how does she play into this scenario? Straight out to CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter, Sydney Sumner.

In a nutshell, who is this woman, Sydney? Nancy, so we believe this woman just happened across Aubrey. So Aubrey has left her home. It's dark. It's cold outside. This woman just happens to spot her, ask her if she's okay. And Aubrey tells the story of having left her abusive home and needing someplace to stay. So this woman is acting with good intentions, maybe not the best intentions, but she takes this young girl into her home thinking she needs help. Listen. About half an hour after the woman says Aubrey left, another woman spots Aubrey hitchhiking near the Ormrod quarry. 15 minutes later, Aubrey appears again, this time on surveillance at a Wawa convenience store.

Aubrey is still wearing her blue sweater with red sleeves, black yoga pants, and her white Billie Eilish sneakers, but she also has a gray beanie and a bag she did not leave her home with. Aubrey appears to be alone. Trade out to Aubrey's mom, Jade Wu. There's no doubt in my mind that that is a photo of Aubrey. Yes, that's right. Now, when was that photo taken as it relates to when she left the home through the window? This picture was taken by Wawa convenience store at January 11th,

one day after Aubrey left home at 9 p.m. at Whitehall, which is 30 minutes away from our home in Palmer Township. So we know she was alive the next day. So who is this woman and what does she, if anything, have to do with Aubrey? Listen. Using the phone number Aubrey contacted her boyfriend from, Palmer PD tracked down the woman Aubrey is believed to be with. The older woman lives in a wealthy area of Allentown, more than 20 miles from Aubrey's home. The woman recognizes Aubrey's picture and admits the teen was with her, but ran away just a few minutes ago. The woman claims she crossed paths with Aubrey on the street around

9 p.m. Friday night and invited the teen into her home as she was not dressed for the weather. All of this because her parents take away her cell phone. Joining me now, expert, the director of operations, USPA Nationwide Security, who leads a team of investigators who specialize in finding missing people. With me is Brian Fitzgibbons at USPASecurity.com. Brian, at the beginning, I was highly suspicious of this woman. A middle-aged to older woman living in some wealthy enclave sees Aubrey. Aubrey gives her a hard luck story. The woman takes her home, believes the story, and before the woman can contact the parents

or anyone else, Aubrey runs away. Now what do we do, Brian? Exactly. We're talking about out of the frying pan and into the fire here. What likely the next step needs to be is to look at, forensically look at this woman's cell phone, see what apps were downloaded, what was logged into. We have to believe that Aubrey used her phone to communicate in multiple ways with multiple people. And that's that's the next hard lead in this case. Alicia Kozakiewicz joining us. I want

you to hear this, Alicia. This woman, though, believes that we are physically abusing Aubrey and is preparing to turn her over to people from out of the state of Pennsylvania to get her out of here. This woman, they said she seemed like a nice older woman. That woman is convinced that Alicia Kozakiewicz was lured as a little girl about the same age as Aubrey, lured online by a predator. She was horribly abused and beaten, kept in an underground but she actually lied to her family. But think about it. A child that doesn't tell mom and dad, hey, I made a new friend online. Is that lying?

Well, of course it is to us, but the child is innocent and doesn't understand. So Alicia, are you surprised at all that Aubrey told this old lady, hey, hey, I've got to get away from home and spent the night there. I'm not surprised at all. No, it's not surprising, especially because to Aubrey, it may have been that something in her sphere of things was happening at home, that to her, it did feel like abuse to her it did feel like that and kids are going through so so much and they want help and often we tell them go to a trusted adult but it's

who they trust as an adult not necessarily an adult that they can trust and that may very well be what happened here and that if this woman was acting with the best intentions which maybe she was possibly possibly she wasn't that she didn't take the best actions she did need to call the police immediately she did need to go to the hospital as he had said there needed to be an action taken immediately and not that this young girl needed to be hidden away that's where everything fell apart And now this girl is lost when we were able to tell where she was prior to this. And here is another chance that she could have been saved. Aubrey convinces the old woman to take her to her little boyfriend's family. Listen. John, John, John. This person, how many Aubrey's just talked to him a half hour ago. She's at

the apartment in Henryville. Aubrey's boyfriend reaches out to her parents to tell them about the encounter with Aubrey and the woman outside his home. He says Aubrey appeared physically okay and describes the woman she was with as an older white woman driving an SUV. But he can't speak to the make or model of the car. He sends them screenshots of several texts from Aubrey, but says she isn't answering him anymore. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Straight back out to Jay. This is Aubrey's mom.

So here's another chance. The old lady could have saved Aubrey, but she believed Aubrey. She believed what Aubrey said in her attempt to run away. Then Aubrey convinces the older woman to take her to her little boyfriend's. They get there, and the boyfriend's mom will not let her stay. So she takes off. There was another chance to save her right there, Jade.

Yes, when I hear about Aubrey's have made contact with this boyfriend, and it happens to be I was luckily on Aubrey's Snapchat account and boyfriend was trying to apologize to Aubrey, say that I wish I mom and she's been missing and please like tell me what happened so he told me that half hour ago this woman with the SUV come to their front door it's not at exactly at their front door they meet them at a corner of their their place and this, like both boyfriend's mom and this old woman refused to call the police and refused to save my little girl. And how

entitled are they to take it on their hands? The old woman said to the mother of the boyfriend, if you want to take her, I'm no way to hand it to police. I'm going to take her out of state tomorrow. When this boy messages to Aubrey saying, I'm so sorry that my parents did that to you and they weren't able to help you.

I hope you're going to be okay. They do not have a relationship as he has depicted to his parents that necessitated them calling in a welfare check to begin with. The trail for their daughter, just 14 years old, goes dead when she leaves the little boyfriend's family standing outside. They say, you can't stay here and send her off. Now they are convinced their daughter has been sex trafficked. And this is why. Since Aubrey's disappearance, her parents have dug through her social media profiles, discovering Aubrey has thousands of contacts on Snapchat from all around the world. and many of her conversations are with strangers much older than her. Her dangerous social media behavior has her parents terrified that Aubrey could have plans to meet up with the predator and that Aubrey could end up anywhere. A family's worst nightmare

becomes a reality after their 14-year-old daughter, Incy Aubrey Wu, goes missing amidst fears the young girl may have fallen prey to online predators. Joining us tonight, Aubrey's mother, Jade, and stepfather, John, joining us. But now to the family attorney, Alexandra Allie Crothamill. Thank you so much for being with us and for what you were doing for her family. Let me understand what exactly was the last sighting of Aubrey, Allie? Sure. The last sighting of Aubrey was that she was seen at the South Whitehall Wawa. There is video surveillance of that. And then she was subsequently seen by a person at the Panera Bread, which is about a five minute to 10 minute walk from the Wawa in the same town, which is South Whitehall, Pennsylvania.

I'm curious, Allie, this is Allie Crotham speaking, the family lawyer. Allie, what time of the day or night were the sightings at the Wawa's, which is, you know, like a convenience store, grocery store, and the Panera Bread. It was approximately 9 p.m. because we know this because the man that spoke to Aubrey at the Panera Bread was picking up his child from the Panera and they closed at approximately 9 p.m. Guys, we have a confirmed sighting of her at the Panera and they close at approximately 9 p.m. Guys, we have a confirmed sighting of her at the Panera Bread. After that, there is no social media. There's no contact with family, no contact with a little boyfriend, nothing, nothing at all. No Insta, no Snapchat, nothing. So given that, Brian Fitzgibbons, where do we go from there?

She was out at night alone, and there's been no contact with her by anyone ever since. The amount of time is extremely concerning here, Nancy. And from a digital perspective, one of the few things that we would be able to do is to see if there were logins to those accounts. This is something that police should be looking at. The second thing is any other support networks that could be sending her money, friends, acquaintances, any of these older male contacts that her parents found on the phone, that this would be the next step in the investigation. This girl is 14 years old and out there on her own. The parents find almost uncountable contacts of people reaching out to her on social media.

Who are these guys? How old are these guys? Where are these guys? It sounds very much like Sarah Merrill when she wakes up and finds her daughter gone. I woke up in the morning. I made myself some coffee, kind of stalled and was trying to enjoy a nice quiet Saturday morning before everyone got up. And I started to cook omelets. And then I realized it was awfully quiet and it was getting late. So I decided to go check on Ella and wake her up.

And that's when I discovered she was gone. I was immediately frantic and panicking. I called her sister first and then I hung up on her and called the police. And as in the case of so many missing children, we find out she had been lured online. The first friend's house I stopped at, I heard concerns that she may be with someone they had known she'd been talking to online. They all had one thing in common. They all had a man from online. They all thought his name was Keith and they all thought he came from a different state. We don't get a lot of ride shares here in Mount Vernon.

And so we were able to narrow down who it was, a subject name of Keith with an address in Michigan. That from our friends at KING Seattle. So we had taken away her phone and her Internet access in our home. So every bit of conversation that she had with the man that lured her away happened at the school on the school premises. She was kidnapped and held against her will for 399 days. He starved her. He tortured her. He assaulted her in every way that you can imagine. He kept her in a dog cage for days and days at a time. He treated her, the way that he treated her was inhuman. It is so hard for me to even imagine the treatment that she received. That is Haley's mom, Shawna Burns.

Haley was found alive after being lured online from the school computer, found alive after being lured online to John and Jade. These are Aubrey's mom and stepdad. You believed you were doing everything possible to keep your daughter safe. Would you agree, John? Yes, I would agree, Nancy. Absolutely. And what do you mean by that? What were you doing to keep her safe? Parents all over the country are listening to you right now. What were you doing to keep Aubrey safe? Well, the first thing we did was we had a very open

and honest dialogue in our home. We didn't shy away from discussing the threats of these situations. And then we follow the guidance of professionals from the medical community. And we have a structured home where we try to make sure that there's no devices laying around, there's no money laying around. We spend a lot of time together as a family, right? I think that's the most important thing we did was try to make sure we were really bonding and connecting. It's been six weeks with no sign of Aubrey. Where is this little girl? Who did she meet online?

The last known sighting was at Panera Bread after 9 p.m. If you know or think you know anything about Aubrey's whereabouts, please help us while there's still time to save her. 610-759-2200. Repeat, 610-759-2200. Repeat. 610-759-2200. To Jade, Aubrey's mom, what is your message to your daughter tonight, Jade? Aubrey, no matter who you encounter, what you've been through, I'm here for you. I'm here for you.

Always. Yesterday, today, tomorrow. I miss you every second. And I'm worried sick. If you are there, you can see this. Let me know you are safe. And reach out. And call 911.

If you are in danger, I know you're a smart girl. You can do this. I'm waiting for you. Just let me know. And if anything, call 911, please. I'm waiting for you to come home. I can't wait to see you. And I miss you so much.

Every second I'm awake. Guys, please help us find Aubrey. Again, there is a chance to bring her home alive. That number is 610-759-2200. Nancy Grace signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.