CA LATECHE NORRIS: Missing from San Diego, CA - 5 Nov 2021 - Age 20 *Found Safe*

LatecheNorrisMissing.jpg
879c6480-5180-11ec-98fd-5fede295c240_1200_630.jpeg

www.nbcsandiego.com

Missing Indiana Woman Last Seen Nov. 5 in San Diego Now Considered At-Risk: SDPD

A 20-year-old Indiana woman who was last seen in San Diego Nov. 4 is now being considered at-risk by San Diego Police Department investigators.
www.nbcsandiego.com www.nbcsandiego.com
A 20-year-old Indiana woman who was last seen in San Diego Nov. 4 is now being considered at-risk by San Diego Police Department investigators.

The department said Tuesday Lateche Norris, who was reported missing by family members Nov. 9, is now being considered at risk "based on the totality of the circumstances, including the length of time Norris has been missing and the absence of anyone reporting verifiable contact with her."

SDPD is asking for the public's help finding Norris and her boyfriend Joseph Smith.

Norris' mother, Cheryl Walker, traveled to San Diego along with Norris' father and step-father over the Thanksgiving holiday to look for her daughter. She told NBC 7 Norris seemed frantic last time they spoke, and said she feared her daughter is "in over her head."

"She’s a good human," Walker said describing Norris. The mother and daughter last spoke over the phone Nov. 5. "She’s not afraid of hardly anything, which is scary for us at times like these. She’ll be the one to track the bullies down. She’s not worried.”

Norris came to San Diego to help Smith after he left a rehab facility and was forced into living on the street, according to Walker. The couple had a disagreement before Walker's last conversation with her daughter, and Walker says there have been domestic violence incidents in the past.


MEDIA - LATECHE NORRIS: Missing from San Diego, CA since 5 Nov 2021 - Age 20
 
Last edited:
Click to expand...
www.cbs8.com

Ex-neighbor: Missing woman in 'dark world' of boyfriend’s drug addiction

Woman tried to help Lateche Norris & Joey Smith before they came to San Diego.
www.cbs8.com www.cbs8.com

Ex-neighbor: Missing woman in 'dark world' of boyfriend’s drug addiction​

We are learning more about a young woman from Indiana who came to San Diego three weeks ago to be with her boyfriend, and then went missing.

News 8 spoke to a former neighbor of the couple, who said Lateche Norris was trying to rescue her boyfriend from long-term drug addiction.

When Norris and her boyfriend, Joey Smith, moved into an apartment in Los Gatos in late July, Smith had been clean for a couple months, according to the former neighbor who did not want to be identified.

“He has a heroin addiction and he had been on Suboxone. It helps heroin addicts recover from their addiction. It satisfies the opium craving physically but you don't get high,” said the ex-neighbor.

Smith grew up in nearby Aptos, where court records showed he has criminal convictions arson, vandalism, and possession of drugs.

The neighbor said Smith, 25, relapsed shortly after moving in with Norris, who was age 19 at the time.

“When they moved out here, he got triggered and he started using again. He overdosed. The ambulance came. They gave him Narcan," said the ex-neighbor. "They just revived him and when he was okay, they left. And he was just sick, and he was throwing up and just really sick,”

Lateche decided to go back home to Anderson, Indiana in early September. Joey quit his construction job and went with her.

“The night before they left, I had them over for dinner and he said, ‘I will be dead in that apartment without her.’ He couldn't live without her, so he walked away from this amazing job to go back to Indiana with her and be tattoo artists again,” the neighbor recalled.

Back in Anderson, Indiana police arrested both on domestic battery charges in late September. Friends and family said Smith flew to San Diego to enroll in drug rehab in mid-October.

On November 1, Norris, by then age 20, flew out to San Diego to meet him.

Days later on November 5, they both went missing and haven’t been seen since.

“They were super dysfunctional. Do I think Joey killed Lateche? No. But do I think it's his fault that she might be dead? Yes, because of his dark world and the dark places she ended up because of her relationship with him. Trying to get him out, I think, they ended up in a very dangerous situation,” said the former neighbor.

“I think that because they were in San Diego out of their area. They have no connections. I think that his drug addiction got him talking with people that were very shady. I think they they're in trouble. I think that they've been victimized by someone or something and they need help.”
 
people.com

'Just as Important as Gabby Petito': Mom Says Daughter, 20, Vanished After Dispute with Boyfriend

Lateche Norris was last seen at a San Diego 7-Eleven on Nov. 4
people.com people.com

'Just as Important as Gabby Petito': Mom Says Daughter, 20, Vanished After Dispute with Boyfriend​

An Indiana mother is turning to social media to ask for the public's help in finding her missing 20-year-old daughter after she vanished from San Diego earlier this month.

"Forgive me as I've never been good at asking for help, but this is bigger than me and I need help to find my baby!" Cheryl Walker writes about her daughter Lateche Norris on a GoFundMe page.


During their last phone call, Norris asked Walker if she had heard from her boyfriend and what number he had used to call her the night before.

"I let her go so she could call him, and I say 'You call me back! I love you,'" Walker writes in the post. "The last words my daughter said were, 'I will, Momma, I promise I love you more.'"

Norris' family cannot locate her boyfriend, 26-year-old Joseph Smith, now either.


On Nov. 9, Walker filed a missing persons report with the San Diego Police Department, but she felt like the department did not take the report seriously.

"My daughter is just as important as Gabby Petito!" Walker writes in the Facebook post. "As if what happened to that sweet girl wasn't heart breaking enough ... the True tragedy is that you learned NOTHING from it that helps prevent this from happening again! You'd rather dismiss alarming information I gave your police department the day I reported her missing! You did NOTHING!!! You chose to ignore the red flags, and try to push a narrative that "We see this all the time."

On Tuesday, three weeks after Norris was reported missing, the San Diego Police Department announced they considered her to be "at-risk."

Walker has since flown to San Diego with family members to search for her daughter. She spent her Thanksgiving handing out fliers.

"I don't quit when others do, I won't let you devalue my daughter's precious life," Walker writes. "I will only get louder from here on out. Lateche Norris has an army behind her and we're only going to grow until she's found and you do something to prevent this from happening to anyone else."
 
www.cbs8.com

Stepfather: Lateche Norris ‘never knew that she was missing’

Indiana woman missing in San Diego for four weeks found safe, wants to "stay homeless."
www.cbs8.com www.cbs8.com

Stepfather: Lateche Norris ‘never knew that she was missing’​

An Indiana woman who went missing in San Diego for four weeks never knew the world was searching for her, according to her stepfather, Amir Walker.

Lateche Norris, 20, and her boyfriend, Joey Smith, 25, were located Friday night, Dec. 3 at 9 p.m. near the downtown San Diego Central Library, after Norris borrowed a cell phone and texted her mother, Walker said. The couple met with San Diego police investigators on Saturday.

Norris “never knew that she went missing” the stepfather claimed during the online interview.

“Teche is choosing to stay homeless,” Walker said.


During Sunday’s interview on Twitter, the stepfather claimed the couple had been living in a makeshift shelter.

“Joey, he built them like a huge type of fort right there off of the highway,” he said.

Around 8:30 p.m. on Friday, the mother received a text from her daughter, Walker said, and they drove to the downtown library and reunited.

Walker said the family drove around ripping down missing person fliers that had been posted downtown, and then returned with Norris and Smith to the Chula Vista hotel room.


It’s unclear what the future holds for the couple. The stepfather said it looks like they want to stay in San Diego, for now.

“Joey is not going to move in with us. Teche does not want to come back home. She’d rather be homeless with Joey and go from the bottom up. That’s scary and admirable at the same time,” the stepfather said.
 
SheWhoMustNotBeNamed said:
www.cbs8.com

Stepfather: Lateche Norris ‘never knew that she was missing’

Indiana woman missing in San Diego for four weeks found safe, wants to "stay homeless."
www.cbs8.com www.cbs8.com

Stepfather: Lateche Norris ‘never knew that she was missing’​

An Indiana woman who went missing in San Diego for four weeks never knew the world was searching for her, according to her stepfather, Amir Walker.

Lateche Norris, 20, and her boyfriend, Joey Smith, 25, were located Friday night, Dec. 3 at 9 p.m. near the downtown San Diego Central Library, after Norris borrowed a cell phone and texted her mother, Walker said. The couple met with San Diego police investigators on Saturday.

Norris “never knew that she went missing” the stepfather claimed during the online interview.

“Teche is choosing to stay homeless,” Walker said.


During Sunday’s interview on Twitter, the stepfather claimed the couple had been living in a makeshift shelter.

“Joey, he built them like a huge type of fort right there off of the highway,” he said.

Around 8:30 p.m. on Friday, the mother received a text from her daughter, Walker said, and they drove to the downtown library and reunited.

Walker said the family drove around ripping down missing person fliers that had been posted downtown, and then returned with Norris and Smith to the Chula Vista hotel room.


It’s unclear what the future holds for the couple. The stepfather said it looks like they want to stay in San Diego, for now.

“Joey is not going to move in with us. Teche does not want to come back home. She’d rather be homeless with Joey and go from the bottom up. That’s scary and admirable at the same time,” the stepfather said.
Click to expand...
That's ridiculous. You need to leave him alone. Where's that going to get you?. Wake up honey.
 
www.cbs8.com

Indiana woman opens up about going missing in San Diego

Lateche Norris, 20, reunited with her mother after weeks of searching in San Diego
www.cbs8.com www.cbs8.com

Indiana woman opens up about going missing in San Diego​

An Indiana woman and her boyfriend, who caused an uproar when they went off the grid in San Diego for four weeks, are opening up to News 8 about what they've been going through.

The reason Norris, 20, and Smith, 25, did not call home for four weeks was because they were homeless, living in a makeshift shelter in Chula Vista.

“We had been staying in Chula Vista on the side of the highway where there's absolutely no people and no resources,” Norris told News 8.

“It’s very tough being homeless out here, figuring out how are we going to eat today, how are we going to just live day to day and survive,” said Norris.

Her mother, Cheryl Walker, was worried her daughter might be dead and had been posting fliers all over downtown San Diego.

Norris finally sent her mom a text message on the evening of Friday, Dec. 3, using a borrowed cell phone.

“I was just sitting there and I got a text and I saw it, and it just said, ‘Hey mama. It's Teche.’ And honestly, I didn't even read the rest of it. I just hit dial,” Walker said.

“I don't think she knew what to feel at that moment but there was a lot of tears, definitely happy that she didn't have to see the worst happen,” said Norris.

The couple said they never knew Walker was in San Diego, frantically searching for them. Norris was glad her mother did come.

“I am eternally grateful that my mother has the strength and the care and compassion and love for me to come and look for me, when she hasn't heard from her daughter in a month,” said Norris.

Part of the mother's concern was sparked by the couple’s history of domestic violence.

“I have never been a danger or a harm to Lateche. I will always put her first and whatever she wants to do, whatever is going to be best for us as a couple I will do,” said Smith.

Additionally, the boyfriend had come to San Diego to enter rehab in Ramona, at a facility called Restoration Ranch.

Smith said he was asked to leave the rehab ranch after he had a seizure.

"He had a seizure, which he does have time to time. He had come down from drinking alcohol too quickly within a 24-hour period, and he wanted to get a grip. He came out here to go there, but because of the seizure it was determined it wasn't a fit. So, he was left homeless out here," said Norris.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Forum statistics

Threads
2,999
Messages
239,153
Members
958
Latest member
Frederick1337
Back
Top Bottom