Tanvi Marupally, a 14-year-old junior high student, was reported missing in January when she failed to come home from school.
A national campaign will be launched to find missing a missing 14-year-old Arkansas girl, who may have run away because she feared her family was going to be deported to India, authorities said.
Tanvi Marupally disappeared in January and was last seen walking past her junior high bus stop, her parents said. The girl, a good student who excelled academically, had been frightened that her father, a tech worker, was going to lose his job amid massive layoffs in that field, her family said.
That was nearly six weeks ago and now her mother and father fear the worst.
Sridevi Eadara and Pavan Roy Marupally say deportation is no longer a concern. The parents posted a YouTube video pleading for their only daughter to come home.
"We are missing you every second," the mother said from the family's home in Conway.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children announced it is launching a campaign to find the girl, with her face being flashed on gas pump screens throughout Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Missouri.
Spokeswoman Rebecca Steinbach said the child advocacy group is also dedicating a case manager to coordinate with law enforcement and the family to offer daily resources and assistance.
"You wish every community with a missing child would respond the way Conway has," Steinbach said of the town, whose residents have held prayer vigils and brought food to the missing girl's parents.
Anyone with information about the girl is asked to call 911 or the Conway Police Department at 501-450-6120. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is also taking calls and texts at 1-800-843-5678, and information can be provided anonymously.
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