Crime & Safety

Search Continues for Missing Teen; Police Release Sketch and Announce Tip Line

Anyone with information about 17-year-old Christine Jelinek is asked to call (760) 931-2223

Police announced the creation Wednesday of a special telephone tip line that they hope will help them find a 17-year-old Carlsbad girl who went missing a week ago, possibly in the company of a middle-aged man she’d met over the Internet.

Christine Jelinek has not been in contact with her family since she disappeared, and they are “deeply concerned about her welfare,” Carlsbad police Lt. Paul Mendes told reporters Wednesday afternoon.

The day before she disappeared, the girl met up with an unidentified man at a sandwich shop near the border of Carlsbad and Vista, possibly after contacting him online, according to Mendes. They then went to another nearby restaurant, where they spent about 45 minutes before her companion, who appeared 45 to 50 years old, drove her home, he said.

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“The (man) is unknown to Christine’s parents, her associates and friends,” the lieutenant said.

The girl—who sometimes goes by the name “Kira Hawkins”—apparently left home early last Wednesday morning, taking with her two pairs of jeans, a black hooded sweat shirt, seven or eight artist’s sketchbooks and, possibly, a Nintendo DS PlayStation, Mendes said.

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She is white, 5 feet 9 inches tall and about 150 pounds, with dark-brown shoulder-length hair and brown eyes.

The man she was seen with is white, about 5 feet 11 inches tall and 160 pounds, with short hair described as dark and “peppered” with blond or gray areas. Authorities urged anyone who might be able to help locate the missing girl to call the newly activated information line at (760) 931-2223.

-City News Service


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