The Misery Machine - URGENT: Lateche Norris Missing - Just as Important as Gabby Petito

Starting point is 00:00:00 Latisha Norris, a beautiful 20-year-old TikToker and aspiring tattoo artist from Indiana has gone missing after flying to San Diego just after Halloween to be with her boyfriend, 25-year-old Joseph Joey Smith. Latisha had met Joey through a mutual friend in April, and the two began dating, which wasn't something that her parents were particularly thrilled about. Not only was he older, Latisha only graduated from high school a few months after they met, but his behavior gave cause for concern. Latisha's stepfather suspected that there was drug use. The couple lived together briefly in Santa Cruz over the summer,

Starting point is 00:00:39 with Latisha returning home to Indiana after two months. Her parents' suspicions were correct. Joey was an addict. Latisha gave him an ultimatum, either clean up his act or he was gone. Joey made an effort shipping off to a rehab facility in San Diego. However, his stay in rehab didn't only. last long as he checked himself out and began living on the streets and subsequently began calling Latatia several times daily from California. Latisha told her mother, Cheryl Walker,

Starting point is 00:01:10 quote, he's going to end up killing himself and I can't live with that. I have to go out there because if I'm there, he won't do it, end quote. This wasn't the first time Joey exhibited controlling behavior. He had previously cut up Latisha's ID, locked her out of her social media accounts, and insisted on phone-free periods, meaning he wouldn't let her use her cell phone. He also had a criminal past. When he was 18, he went on a rampage with friends, vandalizing 16 cars with a baseball bat, and setting three cars on fire. He was sentenced to a year in jail, completed a substance abuse program,

Starting point is 00:01:48 and paid $37,000 in restitution. There has also been instances of domestic violence between the two. The couple were arrested on September 28th on misdemeanor charges of simple domestic battery. There were also reports of Joey breaking Latasha's phone. The couple apparently got into another fight on the evening of November 4th. Latisha then called her mother at 5 o'clock in the morning on November 5th, using a stranger's cell phone. Latisha promised to call her back the following day, but she never did. Cheryl has not heard from her daughter since November 5th, and there have been no new posts

Starting point is 00:02:26 on Latasia's Facebook page. Family and friends have been unable to reach either Latisha or Joey. Latisha was last seen on November 4th at a 7-Eleven store at 2-2-2 Park Avenue next door to the downtown San Diego Library. She is 5 foot 8 inches tall, 160 pounds, with dark brown hair and brown eyes, and is of mixed race. She was last seen wearing black leggings, a black sweatshirt, black and white tennis shoes, I believe they're vans, sneakers.

Starting point is 00:02:56 and was carrying a black and white checkered backpack. She has a tattoo of an arrow on her left forearm, a seven-inch blade on her right calf, a dream catcher on her left shoulder blade, and unknown words on her knuckles, but we looked at some pictures on her Facebook. It looks like it says suck or suck it. We'll put the picture up on YouTube for you to see.

Starting point is 00:03:15 Cheryl Walker has since launched a social media campaign to try to locate her daughter, as the police in San Diego do not believe that Latasia is at risk, and claim that they see this all of the time. Before Thanksgiving, Cheryl, along with Latisha's father and stepfather, traveled from Indiana to San Diego to look for her, putting up missing persons flyers all over the city. If you have any information regarding Latasia's whereabouts, please contact the San Diego Police Department at Area Code 619-531-246, or Latisha's mother, Cheryl Walker. She's provided her phone at Area Code 765, 4366. 422-160-000. You can also email Find Latatia at gmail.com. We'll have all of this information in the show note section.

Starting point is 00:04:07 There's a quote from Latatia's mother that has been in a few articles. And I think it's really important where she says, my daughter is just as important as Gabby Petito. We'll touch on this really quickly. But I think if one thing that the Gabby Petito case has shown us, well, two things. One is that if we all work together and pay attention, we can put massive pressure on police departments to find out what happened to these missing people. And it also showcased that there's a lot of people who went missing just like Gabby that aren't getting the same resources. So a case like Lettacea definitely needs more resources and more attention. Especially where the police aren't calling this an at-risk situation. It could absolutely be an at-risk situation. There's been a tip that Joey's been seen headed into Mexico by himself. And when you see something like that, it really makes me worry about what's happened to Latasia. The story is very much still developing, so we will keep you updated on it.

Starting point is 00:05:06 If you do have any information that we may have missed, please put it in our comment section below. But until Monday, we love you. We love you. Bye.

The Misery Machine - URGENT: Lateche Norris Missing - Just as Important as Gabby Petito

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