CHESAPEAKE, Va. — Hours after check in, 14-year-old Deborah "Abby" Jenkins disappeared from a Chesapeake hotel where she was last seen, walking away with a man more than twice her age.
The Virginia State Police issued a CODI Alert on behalf of the Chesapeake Police Department for Jenkins, was last seen at 3355 South Military Highway around 1 a.m.
Jenkins was staying with her custodial mother and her adopted sister at the Comfort Inn and Suites on South Military Highway when they discovered she was no longer in the room.
“I get out of the shower, she's nowhere to be found in the room. Called my mom, 'Mom, Abby is not in the room.' She says 'What do you mean?' I say 'Mom, Abby is not in the room I can’t find her,'" Jenkins' adopted sister Deauna Miller said
The Chesapeake Police Department described Jenkins as a white female with blonde hair and hazel eyes. She is 5'2" and weighs 75 pounds, and has a lip piercing. She was seen wearing a black zip-up hoodie and black pants.
She is not believed to have a phone in her possession, and is unable to communicate with family.
"All I want is my sister home," Miller said.
Virginia State Police confirmed to 13News Now that 41-year-old James Bell, a white man who is 5'7" tall and 200 pounds and was seen wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and black hat with a green pot leaf logo, is a Tier 3 offender on the Virginia State Police's sex offender registry. His status stems from an aggravated sexual battery charge from 2011.
Police said Bell is known to Jenkins, where both were seen at the Comfort Inn. CPD says they believe they left the hotel on foot.
Police say that the disappearance poses a threat to Abby Jenkins' health.
"They have a CODI Alert, but they need to have an AMBER Alert."
According to Jenkins' biological sister Veronica Ferris, Jenkins has run away from home before, but never more than a couple hours and typically when she was still reachable through other friends in the community.
"There is the element that she’s not in her right frame of mind, the element she could be hurt lying in a ditch somewhere because we can’t communicate with her. We can’t find her," Ferris said.
CODI Alerts, implemented in September after the high profile case and disappearance of Codi Bigsby in 2022, do not require an "abduction" element to the alert. However, Ferris believes based on Jenkins' age and Bell's history that authorities have the grounds for an AMBER Alert.
“I do not believe this is a CODI Alert situation, she’s not capable of having voluntary consent to leave an environment," Ferris said.
Jenkins' case is the sixth CODI Alert issued since the system's implementation.
If you have any information related to the incident contact the Chesapeake Police Department at (757) 382-6161 or you can submit an anonymous tip at P3TIPS.com
