SARASOTA, Fla. (WFLA) – You can see it on their faces and hear it in their voices. Those who know and love Jabez Spann are sick with worry.
They are heartbroken.
His mother and her fiancé shared with us the story of their missing son while fighting back tears, describing the agony of not knowing.
“It’s a 14-year-old child [who’s] missing and fell off the face of the earth. Each day that goes by, it’s more tormenting,” Tawana Spann told News Channel 8 with her fiancé by her side.
It is clear their hearts are hurting.
“It’s becoming unbearable. Every day, a little more I hope it goes away,” Joe Butler said.
He went missing after a family barbecue on Labor Day. Jabez was a student at the Triad Alternative Program.
That was two weeks ago, just before Hurricane Irma. As relatives and loved ones began contacting detectives with law enforcement agencies in the area, the storm of the century hit Florida.
Schools and businesses were closed. Weather was fierce as punishing, powerful winds raged along the coast. Electricity was out everywhere, and the teenager was nowhere to be found.
His family alerted authorities and prayed, hoping for answers as the storm made its way through Florida.
Jabez’s mother and her fiancé, along with the teenager’s grandmother and friends, all held out hope that the young man with the bright smile would walk through the front door.
Now, that hope is waning.
Investigators from the Sarasota Police Department and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement are searching for the 14-year-old.
Sarasota Police Chief Bernadette DiPino held a news conference Monday afternoon. She told the media it all comes down to one thing, information.
The chief stressed to reporters the crucial element of the public’s help in calling in tips and clues about the teenager’s location.
“We know someone out there knows something about his disappearance. It can be the smallest detail, you never know what it may be. It could possibly help with locating Jabez,” said Chief DiPino.
In addition, family and friends are doing their own detective work, searching neighborhoods, going door-to-door desperate for answers on the streets of Sarasota. The family of the 14-year-old expressed gratitude to those who are helping in the search.
Loved ones tell us there’s no way they’ll stop looking for Jabez.
“It’s your child out there for 14 days. No resources, no food, no family. We can’t stop. We won’t stop. We just can’t, it’s impossible,” said Joe.
Family members tell us the circumstances are highly unusual, that this is not like Jabez at all.
The disappearance of this disciplined athlete is truly a mystery.
No posts on social media, no contact from him at all.
Investigators even pinged his phone to a location that they tell us did not determine or help in locating his whereabouts.
Family members tell us they just want answers, whether that information is good or bad.
“If he’s okay, just bring him back home. And, we talk to him. If it’s the other side,” his mother paused, looked down and sighed heavily. “We just want him back home, just bring him back home.”
Her fiancé added, “Whoever knows anything about it, I ask them, I implore them. Just think, if this was your family, your relative, you would go to the ends of the earth. You would want someone to do something. Help us out. We just want our boy to come through this door. We want closure, one way the other.”
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