Portsmouth police are asking for the public’s help locating a missing 14-year-old boy who was last seen at his home Wednesday night, according to the Portsmouth Police Department.
Jude Wolford, 14, was last seen around 9:45 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 21, at his residence in the 1500 block of Fifth Street in Portsmouth, according to the department, which listed the case as a missing and runaway juvenile.
Wolford is 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighs approximately 120 pounds, and has black hair and brown eyes, according to the department. He was last seen wearing a black T-shirt, gray jeans and dark gray tennis shoes.
Anyone with information on Wolford’s location is asked to contact Detective Croasmun at the Portsmouth Police Department at (740) 353-4101 or (740) 354-1600, according to the department.
The department did not provide any additional details in its post announcing the search. No information was released about where Wolford may have been headed or whether foul play is suspected.
Police are asking residents in the Fifth Street area and across Portsmouth to check whether they saw the teenager Wednesday night or Thursday, and to pass along anything that could help locate him.
Police directed tips to a detective on the case, rather than a general tip line, and gave two phone numbers for reaching the department. That setup is meant to get specific sightings — a time, a street and a direction of travel — to investigators quickly, while the trail from Wednesday night is still fresh.
The department’s appeal circulated across Scioto County on Thursday through local outlets and social media, widening the search beyond the Fifth Street neighborhood where Wolford was last seen. In a county seat the size of Portsmouth, a teenager on foot is likely to have been seen by someone — a driver, a neighbor or a business camera — and police are counting on one of those sightings coming in.
Missing juvenile cases are worked as searches based on the last confirmed sighting, and tips from the public are often how departments narrow where to look. Anyone who sees Wolford is asked to call police rather than approach on their own.
The search remained active Thursday. NewsForce247 will update this story when Portsmouth police release new information about Wolford’s whereabouts.
Photo: Vasiliymeshko, CC BY