A ‘vulnerable’ 15-year-old has disappeared 11 days after she told her foster parents she was popping to the shops.
Madison, known as Maddie, left her foster home in the Southmead area of Bristol on April 26 and has not been seen since.
Cops say Madison is an avid user of social media and has been known to use it to meet new people in search of money and a place to stay. They worry she might have been exploited by someone she met on the internet.
Avon and Somerset Police have already put out two appeals since she went missing and describe her as white, about 5ft tall and of average build with shoulder length brown hair.
Detective Inspector Stuart Toms said: ‘She’s a vulnerable teenage girl who is at risk of being exploited and we urgently need the public’s help to locate her and make sure she’s ok.
‘Maddie – if you see this please let someone know you’re safe and well. Your family, foster parents and friends are worried about you.’
Madison has not been contacted over social media but she changes her accounts on a regular basis, according to police, making it harder to reliably get in touch with her online.
‘Our previous appeals have not generated a great deal and so we’re asking people to share this appeal far and wide so we can reach as many people as possible.’ DI Toms added.
According to independent fact checkers Full Fact, there are 75,918 children were recorded missing by UK police forces based on data from 2018/2019.
The UK Missing Persons Unit records 1,514 children as long-term missing, which means they have been missing for longer than 28 days in England, Wales, and Scotland (data for Northern Ireland isn’t available).
Most cases of missing children that are found (52 per cent) are found within eight hours and 80 per cent are found within 24 hours.