Family desperate to find missing Orlando teen believed to be with accused sex trafficker

ORLANDO, Fla. — It’s been more than two weeks and authorities still haven’t been able to find a missing Edgewater High School student who has been classified by law enforcement as an "endangered runaway."

The teenager was found in a human trafficking investigation in July, but disappeared again.

The teen’s family believes she’s with the same man who picked her up last time.

Her grandmother, who Channel 9 is not identifying due to the sensitivity of the case, described a 17-day search for her beloved granddaughter.

The grandmother has been passing out fliers with the teen’s picture, sometimes at strip clubs, in hopes someone would see her and send her home.

Authorities found the teenager with Michael Ashford in July.

Ashford was facing multiple charges, including sexual assault and living off the earnings of a prostitute, and was in jail until September.

The State Attorney’s Office did not have enough evidence to file charges in the case, forcing a judge to allow Ashford out of jail.

The state 33 days to file charges for someone on a no-bond status, and since those charges weren’t filed in that allotted time, Ashford was able to get out of jail on his own recognizance.

It should be noted that the investigation into the sex trafficking allegations remains open and ongoing. The state has 175 days from the date of his arrest to file those charges.

The teenager disappeared weeks after Ashford's release.

Her grandmother dropped her off at the school on Oct. 11 and was the last family member to see her.

“She had on a nice black shirt with a nice tank top and the Afro wig,” said the grandmother. “I looked at her and I said, ‘Wow, you looking really different this morning.’ And she smiled and that was it.”

The teenager walked off campus that day—the school cannot physically restrain a teenager who is leaving.

Records show 33 children under the watch of the Department of Children and Families are missing in Central Florida.

Eight of them are suspected human trafficking victims.

Police classify the girl as an endangered runaway.

A new law that went into effect on Oct. 1 does not allow law enforcement to arrest minors for prostitution.

Instead, they are put in touch with resources to help them find a new life.

The 15-year-old missing in this case had been enrolled in one of those programs when she disappeared from campus. There is one detective specifically assigned to missing children's cases in Orlando's Police Department.

That investigator has been assigned 303 cases since January--277 of them have been cleared, and 26 of those children are still missing.

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Cox Media Group