There are no suspects, no motive and few leads to follow in the disappearance of Phylicia Barnes.
"It is almost like she completely vanished," Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told AOL News today. "We have nothing tangible in terms of leads. There was a big meeting today -- we have gone 14 days now -- and not a single sighting or a single tip has turned out to be true."
Baltimore Police
Phylicia Barnes, a 16-year-old North Carolina girl who disappeared while visiting relatives in Baltimore, may have met with foul play, police say.
Barnes lives in Monroe, N.C., but was visiting relatives in Baltimore. She was last seen around 2:30 p.m. Dec. 28, when she left the apartment of her 27-year-old half-sister, Deena Barnes. According to relatives, Phylicia Barnes told her sister she was going shopping.
What happened to the teenager next remains a mystery, police said.
Investigators do not suspect Phylicia is a runaway. They do suspect foul play in the case, but at this point they do not know if she is the victim of a homicide or abduction, Guglielmi said.
"We don't have any physical evidence, and it is really turning into a case based on witness interviews," Guglielmi said.
Last week, investigators examined video footage from an apartment complex near where Barnes went missing. They also sent items taken from her sister's apartment complex to the FBI lab in Quantico, Va., but neither has resulted in any new leads.
"The video footage proved to be unhelpful to the case," Guglielmi said. "There were no sightings on there of Phylicia, and we've got nothing from the lab."
Family members have described Barnes as a straight-A student who was to graduate early from Union Academy in Monroe and planned to go to Towson University in Maryland. Her mother, Janice Sallis, has said it is out of character for Barnes to take off without notifying someone.
"She's always smiling," Sallis told ABC's "Good Morning America" Saturday. "She's very bright ... she's well-liked. She's a very loving girl. What you see on that picture, that's her. She's a special flower. She's my baby."
Sallis cannot think of anyone who would want to harm her daughter, and neither can police. The lack of suspects is making the case all the more difficult, police said.
"Last year we had roughly 355 missing person cases, and all but four were solved," Guglielmi said. "The ones that weren't solved were suspected homicides, and once you dig you find some emotional issues, family disputes, a boyfriend they may have run off with who may have done terrible things, but in this case we have none of that. It's sad and it's terribly frustrating."
Last week, Guglielmi said investigators were having a difficult time getting national media exposure for Barnes.
"This case is no different than the Natalee Holloway case. The only difference is Phylicia is from North Carolina, she went missing in Baltimore and she is African-American," Guglielmi told AOL News on Friday.
Today, Guglielmi said several national media outlets have since taken notice. In addition to "Good Morning America," HLN's Nancy Grace featured the missing girl on her show Monday, he said.
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"We were on a national radio show today, and yesterday Nancy Grace featured us for a little bit," Guglielmi said. "Headline News is supposed to do a piece later today. We're grateful for that. All we want is for people to see her picture."While efforts to locate Barnes have so far proven to be fruitless, the case is far from cold, Guglielmi said.
"We are not giving up by any means," he said. "We are re-evaluating, preparing to conduct more searches, and focusing on some interviews to see if we can nail down foul play. We are also pleading for help. I think the thing that is going to break this case wide open is going to be a tip from somebody who may have remembered something or seen something."
Authorities have set up a special tip line. Anyone with information on Barnes' disappearance should call 855-223-0033. The FBI has posted her vital information and photo on its website, and a Facebook page has been created.