Search continues for missing teen in Maury County
By MIKE CHRISTEN mchristen@c-dh.net
The Columbia Police Department continues to search for Christopher Andrew Gibson, a juvenile that has been missing since early August.
Gibson was last seen wearing a red T-shirt and blue jeans at the Burger King located on Nashville Highway.
The 17-year-old is described by police as six feet tall, weighing approximately 150 pounds with brown eyes and black hair.
"We are still looking at all leads and we are still interested in any leads," Lt. Jeremy Haywood told The Daily Herald last month.
This is not the first time the local teen has gone missing.
Gibson was also reported missing in May. After missing for nearly a week, the Columbia teenager was found to be safe and sound.
There are more than 70 missing children recorded in Tennessee each year. More than 60 percent of those children are girls.
The National Runaway Safeline says between 1.6 to 2.8 million youth run away each year in the United States. Approximately 23 percent of runaways traveled a distance of 50 miles or more from home.
Across the United States, an estimated 800,000 children are reported missing each year, the equivalent of more than 2,000 children every day, according to the non-profit organization Child Watch of America. Of those reports, there are an estimated 115 "stranger abduction" cases each year, in which the child is taken by an unknown individual.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation reports there were 464,324 entries for missing children to the National Crime Information Center in 2017 and 465,676 in 2016.
How to contact Columbia
Any person within the Columbia area that may assist in this or any other investigation is encouraged to contact the Criminal Investigations Division of Columbia Police Department at (931) 560-1670.
Other options include the 24-hour line of Columbia Police Department Dispatch at (931) 388-2727, Maury County
Crimestoppers at (931) 381-4900, or send a Columbia Police SAFE Tip Email to SafeTips@ColumbiaTN.com.
Investigators request that tips not be submitted on the public thread of the department's Facebook page. If submitting information on Facebook, the department requests it be done in the form of a private message.