A missing young cheerleader has been found alive after a desperate search was sparked when she vanished from school.
DETAILS OF WHAT HAPPENED
Ava Phillips, 17, had been missing since Tuesday and was last seen leaving Angleton High School at 10:02am getting into a white Toyota Corolla.
Her mother, Kailey Perez, suspected Phillips was with her boyfriend heading to Austin, which is nearly 200 miles away from the town of Angleton.
She later revealed to Click2Houston that her daughter had recently been ‘trying to distance herself from a boy who had been emotionally abusive towards her,’ though it remains unclear if her current boyfriend is the abusive one.
POLICE FOUND HER
But in a shock update, the Angleton Police Department revealed that Ava ‘is safe and has been reunited with her family,’ though it offered no additional information.
The widescale search effort for Ava was helped along by Alex Bregman, the third baseman for the Houston Astros, who shared a bulletin describing her disappearance on X.
His post got 158,000 views.
SOME THINGS AREN’T CLEAR
It remains unclear why Ava abandoned her car in the school parking lot the day she left. Her car still contained crucial belongings such as her phone, keys and backpack.
Ava’s boyfriend hasn’t been identified by police yet.
While she was still missing, Perez claimed Ava called her from a different number sounding distressed.
‘She called me from a blocked number. She sounded scared and I don’t think she’s in control.’
