Police are frantically searching for a teenage girl who vanished in Washington state more than a month ago after getting into the car of a 45-year-old man who goes by “Money Making Prince,” according to authorities and reports.
Ashlynn Hanley, 15, was last spotted on the morning of Dec. 10 possibly heading to Seattle, according to the Port Orchard Police Department.
Security footage showed Hanley, dressed in a pink puffer jacket, in the parking lot of Hi Joy bowling alley in the High Point Shopping Center, where she hopped into a black 2011 Buick Enclave, according to NBC Dateline.
Investigators later determined the Buick Enclave — which turned a corner and headed south with the teen inside — was registered to Lavelle Antron Cotton, 45, the outlet reported.
Cops are now looking to speak to Cotton, also known as “Money Making Prince,” about Hanley’s disappearance, the department announced in an update on Friday.
Police have been in contact with a person identifying as Cotton over the phone, but have not been able to speak with him in person, Deputy Chief Alan Iwashita of the Port Orchard Police Department told Dateline.
Hanley was released from a juvenile center with an ankle monitor days before she vanished, her mother, Jade Hanley, told the outlet. It is not immediately clear why the missing teen had been at the center.
She had been living with her paternal grandmother and was driven to school by her on the morning of Dec. 10 — though she evidently didn’t stay there.
Jade Hanely was contacted by officials who told her that her daughter’s ankle monitor had been cut off and last pinged near the bowling alley.
“I got off work, and I went up to the bowling alley, and I asked if they have any video footage of their parking lot,” she told the outlet.
After viewing the security clip, the alarmed mother contacted police to report Hanley missing.
“She’s pretty much a happy kid … She’s stubborn, she doesn’t take no for an answer,” Jade Hanley said of her 15-year-old daughter.
Hanley is about 5’1” and 110 lbs with brown eyes. She had light brown hair when she vanished, but often dyes it different colors, cops said.
Port Orchard police are now working with multiple regional task forces and outside agencies to help locate Hanley, who they believe could be on the east side of the Puget Sound.
Cops have urged the public to come forward with any tips on the girl’s disappearance, as well as information on the whereabouts of Cotton.
