THE search continues for Sebastian Rogers, the 15-year-old who has gone missing, prompting a nationwide effort to locate him.
According to the authorities, they will leave “no stone unturned” as they try to figure out what happened to the teen.
Who is Sebastian Rogers?
Sebastian Rogers is a 15-year-old teenager from Tennessee who has made headlines after it was reported that he was missing.
He’s reportedly diagnosed with autism, but his family noted that he is high-functioning.
According to his mother, Katie Proudfoot, he is a gamer who’s “very smart” and “not a mischievous child by any means.”
He’s also reportedly not the type to wander off alone.
“My son doesn’t run and he’s not a runner. He’s never run away before,” she told WAFB. “I don’t know why he walked out that door.”
“There’s answers to questions right now that we are searching for desperately and we just don’t have that,” Sebastian’s stepfather, Chris Proudfoot, added.
When did Sebastian Rogers go missing?
Sebastian Rogers was reported to be missing on February 26, 2024.
It is believed that he left his house alone, with no shoes on, and only a flashlight in tow.
His parents last saw him on February 25, with his mother explaining that Sebastian completed his usual night-time chores and went to bed at around 9 pm after she told him to.
“He was doing something in his room because about an hour later, I heard some noise, and I was like, ‘I don’t care what you’re doing in there, but go to sleep,”’ Katie said in an interview on the Chronicles of Olivia YouTube channel.
“[At] six o’clock, I went to wake him up for school Monday morning, and that’s when he wasn’t there.”
He was last seen wearing a black sweatshirt, black sweatpants, and a pair of glasses.
He is also reported to have dirty blond hair, stand 5’5″, and weigh 120 pounds.
While the authorities are under the belief that Sebastian wandered off alone, Katie’s intuition tells her that her son may been taken by someone.
“I feel like if he had been close to the house, or had walked off, that we would have found him by now with as many people as have been searching,” she said on the Crime Stories with Nancy Grace podcast.
His father, Seth Rogers, echoed the same sentiment, telling CBS affiliate WTVF that Sebastian is not one to go out on his own, let alone do it barefoot due to something that happened when he was a child.
“He decided he wanted to step into a mound of what he thought was dirt. It was fire ants, and since then he doesn’t like to get his feet in the dirt. He likes to have his shoes and socks on,” Seth recalled.
“With the information that I’ve gotten from Sumner County and TBI and the fact that dogs aren’t 100 percent, they’re not picking up his scent,” he continued.
“One dog tracked him to a construction area over there and it just disappeared and it’s confusing. There’s missing pieces to the puzzle and I’m having difficulty solving this.”
“I’m hoping he’s still alive. That is my main hope right now.”
What are the police saying?
The authorities are pulling all the stops to find the whereabouts of Sebastian.
Since his reported disappearance, they have employed a large-scale search using everything from helicopters to drones to search-and-rescue dogs.
They have also started sorting through some landfills as a “precautionary measure to eliminate possible options and questions.”
Police were able to retrieve a pair of glasses 39 days into the investigation, although they were unable to determine whether or not they belonged to Sebastian.
“Despite exhaustive efforts, there are no new leads or evidence to indicate the search will be immediately fruitful,” the Sumner County Sheriff’s Office shared in a post on Facebook. “However, we are committed to leaving no stone unturned in our mission to locate Sebastian and bring him home safely.”
Chief Deputy Eric Craddock also said that the community is hopeful that Sebastian is alive and well.
“We are going to continue this investigation and following up on every tip that comes in. Some of this may revert to us going back over some things that we have already done for a sixth, seventh or eighth time,” he declared.
“A fresh set of eyes never hurt. We are going to continue to work to find Sebastian.”