The search for a teenager missing from Hendersonville has now stretched on two days, with authorities urgently trying to find him before colder weather moves into the area. Based on additional inve…
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AMBER Alert: Day 2 of search for missing Sumner County teen
The search for a teenager missing from Hendersonville has now stretched on two days, with authorities urgently trying to find him before colder weather moves into the area.
Sebastian Wayne Drake Rogers, 15, was
reported missing on Monday, Feb. 26 from the Beech area in Hendersonville. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) issued an Endangered Child Alert for Sebastian that morning as multiple agencies took to the area to look for him.
Based on additional investigative information developed during the search, the TBI issued an AMBER Alert for Sebastian Tuesday afternoon. An AMBER alert is issued when there is reasonable belief by law enforcement that an abduction has occurred and the child is in imminent danger of serious bodily injury or death, per the DOJ.
Sumner County EMA Director Ken Weidner said there were over 200 searchers on the ground on Monday, with multiple K-9 teams, mounted units, helicopter crews and even drones being deployed. The teams have since covered a five-mile radius in the Beech and Shackle Island area.
However, on Tuesday afternoon, Chief Deputy Eric Craddock with the Sumner County Sheriff’s Office said there was still no sign of Sebastian. Multiple agencies remained on scene Tuesday as the search continued, with officials urging people in the area to check their surveillance cameras.
“Yesterday we, for lack of a better term, we threw everything that we could possibly throw at this. We absolutely obliterated covering the area where Sebastian could have walked off to,” Craddock said. “There’s a litany of things that could have happened to Sebastian and none of them we could presume are credible or validate yet, so we’re doing everything we can.”
Craddock said authorities have received several tips over the course of the search and are looking into every possible lead, including a potential sighting on Newmans Trail off Long Hollow Pike, but so far none of those tips have panned out.
The urgency of the search is continuing to increase as Craddock said Sebastian is without his medication and his mom has told officials that “all of his shoes are accounted for at his house.”
“It definitely increases the volatility of the situation,” Craddock said. According to Weidner, the temperature is also expected to drop on Wednesday, adding more potential dangers.
“We’re concerned about the weather because we don’t know exactly what he’s dressed in and we could have some flurries tomorrow,” Weidner said. “The storm, so the wet, and you lose body temperature 30 times faster when you’re wet than when you’re dry.”
Authorities have not yet called on the public to join in the search, but that is subject to change as the search stretches on. Right now, Craddock said the best thing the public can do is share Sebastian’s missing poster on social media and, “if you see something, say something.”
“Check your home surveillance video. Just check. If you see something, call us. We’ll come out and look,” he said. “I think that that’s going to be what breaks the case is somebody’s home surveillance video seeing something.”
