Family searches for Riverdale teenager missing from Forest home

FOREST — Mike and Tracy Boyd woke up Saturday to a call all parents dread.

Their teenage daughter, Elizabeth “Lizzie” Saracson, is missing.

Lizzie, 14, is an eighth-grader at Riverdale. It was nothing unusual for her, along with her younger brother, Andrew, to spend the weekend with their sister and her husband, Ashley and Greg Nelson, at their home in Ada. That was the plan for this weekend. Ashley picked up her brother and sister Friday after school.

“Ashley would pick Lizzie and Andrew up several times a month to stay with her and her husband,” said Mike as he waited for word on Lizzie Sunday afternoon at the Forest Police Department.

After spending the evening watching TV and playing video games, they went to bed about 10 p.m. Friday, since Greg had to work early Saturday morning.

Nothing was unusual, Mike said. Lizzie is a normal teenage girl, he said. She was so happy last week after she picked up her schedule for classes next fall.

“She got in all the classes she wanted,” Mike said. “She was looking forward to the trip to (Washington) D.C. and she liked to help out with the volleyball tournaments for the Forest festival.”

But when Greg woke up to go to work at 6 a.m., he noticed the family dog did not greet him as usual. Thinking the dog needed to go outside and Lizzie was walking the animal, he looked out the window and found nothing.

Then he noticed the bedroom door where Lizzie and Andrew slept was closed. They never keep it closed at night, Mike said. When Greg opened the door, the dog met him and Lizzie was gone, along with her duffel bag. He called Ada police.

About two hours later, Mike and Tracy were told to contact the Ada Police Department, where they learned Lizzie was gone.

“It was devastating,” said Mike, who is a member of the Forest EMS. “I am the one who is able to maintain control, able to help people, but now I feel helpless. Whenever there was a kid missing, I shared the information on Facebook. I never thought my child would be the one being shared.”

The cell phone company was able to “ping” Lizzie’s phone last at 3:38 a.m. going west on U.S. 30 near Beaverdam. The family also was told Lizzie reportedly contacted a friend in Forest on her phone at 2:30 a.m. saying she was “ready to leave Ada.”

In the hours since their daughter last was seen, said Tracy, the community has been amazing in their support of the family. Their neighbors in Forest have brought food and circulated hundreds of fliers with Lizzie’s picture and contact information on them.

Mike said the support he has received from area first responders has been amazing.

“If not for the fire department, EMS and police department in Forest, I wouldn’t have made it through the last 24 hours,” he said. Volunteers have stayed with the couple as the search continued today.

Mike said he wishes he could get a message to Lizzie.

“I would tell her to come home. We’re not mad at her, we just want her home safe,” he said.

A press release from the Ada Police Department describes Lizzie as having brown hair just beyond her shoulders and brown eyes. She has a mole on her neck and is 5 feet, 8 inches tall, weighing 140 pounds. She was last seen wearing blue jeans, tennis shoes and a Bowling Green T-shirt. She may be carrying a blue duffel bag with the name “Lizzie” in sprinkle letters.

Anyone seeing or knowing where Lizzie is should contact the Ada Police Department at 419-634-0010 or the Hardin County Sheriff’s Office at 419-673-1268.

By DAN ROBINSON
DC-U news bureau