Keara & Sierra Hess, Endangered Alert, Sept. 24, 2009 NC
Keara Hess
Sierra Hess
Mathew Hess
Mother: Missing girl is pregnant and needs care
Father is being sought in disappearance of 12-year-old and her younger sister.
By Ely Portillo
elyportillo@charlotteobserver.com
Posted: Monday, Sep. 28, 2009
Police continued to search for two missing Mooresville girls and their adoptive father today. The girls' mother said one of the missing girls is nine months pregnant and needs urgent medical care.
Missing are 12-year-old Keara Lasha Hess, who is pregnant, and Sierra Nicole Hess, 11. They haven't been seen since leaving home with their adoptive father Thursday morning, investigators said.
Iredell Sheriff's Office Lt. Julie Gibson said Sunday night that investigators haven't received any tips from the public and have no concrete information about where their father, Mathew Hess, might have taken them.
"We're not able to track any activity that he's done at all," such as cell-phone calls, Gibson said.
Jeanette Hess, the girls' mother, is especially concerned about Keara because she was due to give birth to a baby boy over the weekend, she said in an interview with the Observer.
She told the Observer that she wants her daughter's pregnancy disclosed because she is scared Keara won't receive medical care and because it will help people notice them.
"I want people to know - she sticks out like a sore thumb," Hess said. "I want someone to call police, I need to know something."
The sheriff's office is under order to turn the girls over to the Department of Social Services when they are found, Gibson said.
"DSS was involved with the family before we were," Gibson said. She didn't know all the details, Gibson said, but at least part of the reason was Keara's "medical needs."
Hess' husband and daughters were there when she came home last Thursday at about 4 a.m. from her overnight shift at a call center, she said.
When Hess, 28, awoke about 8 a.m., the girls and Mathew Hess, 40, were gone, she said. He had left a note saying he was taking the girls to the store to buy supplies before school. He often took them to school, Hess said.
They never made it there or back home and Hess reported them missing, according to the sheriff's office.
Hess said she and her husband have been married for almost 11 years, and that her husband adopted Keara and Sierra soon after they wed.
About three years ago, Mathew moved out of their house over personal differences but moved back last year, Hess said.
The girls go to Lakeshore Middle School in Mooresville and are in sixth and seventh grades. Principal Jim Gaghan said that both girls seemed to be good students.
"We've never had a pregnant student before," Gaghan said. Keara was attending classes at the school in a "special curriculum" set up for her by the school nurse and a counselor, Gaghan said.
Gibson said that the girls have been listed with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, online at www.missingkids.com.
The sheriff's office has been sending bulletins to law enforcement agencies throughout the region, Gibson said, as well as driving probable routes Mathew Hess might have taken.
Although Mathew Hess is one of the girls' legal custodians and has not been charged with a crime, the case is listed with the national center as a family abduction.
He has family in New York and friends in Tennessee, investigators said, and they are looking into the possibility that he took the girls to one of those states.
Because an AMBER Alert is usually reserved for high-risk stranger abductions, one was not issued, authorities said.
Keara Hess
Sierra Hess
Mathew Hess
Mother: Missing girl is pregnant and needs care
Father is being sought in disappearance of 12-year-old and her younger sister.
By Ely Portillo
elyportillo@charlotteobserver.com
Posted: Monday, Sep. 28, 2009
Police continued to search for two missing Mooresville girls and their adoptive father today. The girls' mother said one of the missing girls is nine months pregnant and needs urgent medical care.
Missing are 12-year-old Keara Lasha Hess, who is pregnant, and Sierra Nicole Hess, 11. They haven't been seen since leaving home with their adoptive father Thursday morning, investigators said.
Iredell Sheriff's Office Lt. Julie Gibson said Sunday night that investigators haven't received any tips from the public and have no concrete information about where their father, Mathew Hess, might have taken them.
"We're not able to track any activity that he's done at all," such as cell-phone calls, Gibson said.
Jeanette Hess, the girls' mother, is especially concerned about Keara because she was due to give birth to a baby boy over the weekend, she said in an interview with the Observer.
She told the Observer that she wants her daughter's pregnancy disclosed because she is scared Keara won't receive medical care and because it will help people notice them.
"I want people to know - she sticks out like a sore thumb," Hess said. "I want someone to call police, I need to know something."
The sheriff's office is under order to turn the girls over to the Department of Social Services when they are found, Gibson said.
"DSS was involved with the family before we were," Gibson said. She didn't know all the details, Gibson said, but at least part of the reason was Keara's "medical needs."
Hess' husband and daughters were there when she came home last Thursday at about 4 a.m. from her overnight shift at a call center, she said.
When Hess, 28, awoke about 8 a.m., the girls and Mathew Hess, 40, were gone, she said. He had left a note saying he was taking the girls to the store to buy supplies before school. He often took them to school, Hess said.
They never made it there or back home and Hess reported them missing, according to the sheriff's office.
Hess said she and her husband have been married for almost 11 years, and that her husband adopted Keara and Sierra soon after they wed.
About three years ago, Mathew moved out of their house over personal differences but moved back last year, Hess said.
The girls go to Lakeshore Middle School in Mooresville and are in sixth and seventh grades. Principal Jim Gaghan said that both girls seemed to be good students.
"We've never had a pregnant student before," Gaghan said. Keara was attending classes at the school in a "special curriculum" set up for her by the school nurse and a counselor, Gaghan said.
Gibson said that the girls have been listed with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, online at www.missingkids.com.
The sheriff's office has been sending bulletins to law enforcement agencies throughout the region, Gibson said, as well as driving probable routes Mathew Hess might have taken.
Although Mathew Hess is one of the girls' legal custodians and has not been charged with a crime, the case is listed with the national center as a family abduction.
He has family in New York and friends in Tennessee, investigators said, and they are looking into the possibility that he took the girls to one of those states.
Because an AMBER Alert is usually reserved for high-risk stranger abductions, one was not issued, authorities said.