19 year old girl, member of OWS, goes missing (updated 9/12)

Via the New York Daily News

New Yorker Stevie Bates, 19, who had been traveling cross country with Occupy Wall Street friends to an Occupy event, stopped at a layover in Pittsburgh on April 27th on the way home to New York.

She hasn’t been seen since.

Bates was last observed boarding the bus in Pittsburgh bound for arrival in NY on April 28. Her mother Vivian last spoke to her on the phone when she was at the Greyhound station in Pittsburgh at 7:52 pm. She told her mother that when she got back she intended to stay with friends in Brooklyn but would be home later in the day. She never arrived.

Bates, a 19-year-old former cheerleader at the Bronx High School of Science, has shoulder-length blond dreadlocks, weighs 120 pounds and is 5’6″ tall. She has a nose piercing and a belly piercing.

The family filed a missing person’s report with the City of Yonkers Police Department on May 9, according to Eugene Marron, a police dispatcher for the Yonkers Communications Department. Jones and Bates, who live in Yonkers, have received kernels of information in the days since Stevie disappeared. Police in Pittsburgh contacted Vivian on Friday with information that Stevie was captured on video boarding a bus in that city on April 27 during a layover, Vivian said, apparently at about the same Vivian last spoke to her daughter.

Vivian described her daughter as a homebody, incredibly outgoing, and quick to make friends. She rejected the idea that Stevie may have run away because of a family grievance. ”We were good, good friends,” Vivian said. “She would never do that.”

Stevie was heavily involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement, living in a tent in Zuccotti Park from September of last year until the camp was raided in November, Vivian said. She attended Hunter College last year but didn’t register for this semester and was applying to colleges for the fall. She was interested in studying architecture. “In fact she has a couple of applications at home that are waiting for her,” Vivian said

The family purchased a new home in Yonkers on March 1 and was redoing the floors of the house in early April. Stevie was supposed to stay with friends in Brooklyn for a few days while the house was touched up. A week later, on April 19, Vivian said she got a call from Stevie from Virginia, saying she had gone on a road trip to Northern California with three friends she knew from Occupy Wall Street. Stevie lost her cell phone along the way so Vivian kept in contact through a friend’s phone her daughter was traveling with.

Around April 23, Stevie told her mother their car broke down in North Carolina and they would be taking a bus to Arkansas. On April 26, Stevie had resolved to come home and boarded a Greyhound bus from Hot Springs, Ark. that was scheduled to arrive in New York City on April 28 at 5:40 a.m., Vivian said.

Vivian said she has been in contact with the Pittsburgh Police Department, speaking with a Det. Colleen Brust. On Saturday, Brust, who works in the missing person’s bureau, could not be reached for comment, though a Det. Bryan Sellers, who deals with sexual assault cases, said the missing person’s report involving Stevie Bates is in the Pittsburgh police system.

On Wednesday, Vivian went to Zuccotti Park, armed with a picture of Stevie to see if anyone knew of her whereabouts.

“My daughter is missing 14 days now,”Vivian said on Friday. “And this is unlike her not to at least be somewhere where I can find her or where her friends know where she was. I don’t know what to think. I haven’t heard anything.”

For any information on the whereabouts of Stevie Bates, please contact Vivian Bates at 646-345-3410.

Update: We’ve received information that an Occupier in NYC saw Stevie at Occupy Union Square this weekend. We will keep you updated as info becomes available but that is a positive sign.

Update: We want to thank everyone who has been offering to help and has reblogged or retweeted this information. As of this time, 11 pm EST any report of a sighting is not confirmed. Please continue to spread the word and to help look for Stevie.

Again, Stevie’s mother reports that she had been in regular contact with her daughter, that Stevie borrowed a phone to stay in contact with her. This is not like her. While there was an earlier report of a sighting, we cannot confirm that at this time. We are asking people in PA, NY and NJ to be especially mindful. This is 17 days. Please help find her. If you have any information, please call the above number, the Yonkers police or you can leave a comment here and it will be passed on.

Update: Here is a video of local TV station in Pittsburgh putting the word out.

Again, Stevie was last known to have spoken with her mother on April 27th at 7:52 pm ET while in Pittsburgh on a Greyhound bus layover stop – Stevie was expected to board the bus again as it headed for Port Authority in New York to arrive at 5:40 am that morning. It is not known whether or not she made it there. The bus schedule indicates that there were two other scheduled stops along the bus route that Stevie might have traveled – one in Slippery Rock, PA at 10:50 pm for 15 mins, and a stop in Philadelphia at 3:20 am for 20 mins. If you are in those areas, it would also be helpful to spread the word about Stevie Bates.

Flyers for download to distribute: Flyer 1 Flyer 2

Update 5/26: It has been confirmed that Stevie did in fact arrive in NYC on April 28th at 8:51 am. So she made it to New York, and isn’t missing from PA. There have been other reported sightings which are being followed but as yet none has panned out. She had left her Occupy friends and was traveling alone to a friend’s house. We will let you know as information becomes available. Please keep spreading the word until we can bring Stevie safely home.

Here is video of Stevie reportedly about 2 weeks before she went missing:

Update 9/12:

Stevie will be profiled on the Ricki Lake show today with the above video. Hopefully, this will bring some answers and help find her.