12-year old girl still missing after a month-long search

Jocelyn Thomas was last seen in or near a Norwood school on Tuesday, November 30 and is still missing after more than a month of searching by police, friends and relatives.

Thomas, 12, whose legal name is Joeline Thomas, was last seen at school during an assembly at around 8:50 a.m. She attends M.S. 80 at 190 East Mosholu Parkway South. A week after her disappearance, the case was turned over to the NYPD’s Missing Persons Bureau from the 52nd Precinct.

According to Thomas’s grandmother Mary Thomas, the police are investigating several leads, including one in Brooklyn, and are now in the process of obtaining Jocelyn’s phone and computer records to enhance the search.

Thomas said that she and her daughter, Frances Morales, are not giving up hope. Nevertheless, she said she is disheartened by the way a child can go missing in the city without much of a trace of her whereabouts.

“It just seems like this child got swallowed up by the city and no one wants to help here,” Thomas said. “I find the lack of urgency in trying to find out what happened very disconcerting. It takes seven days for a case to go from the precinct to Missing Persons, and I have had to contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Polly Klaas Foundation on my own. If I didn’t have access to a computer, there would be no one contacting those groups.”

She said that it is very hard for the investigation to move forward without anyone coming forward with new leads in the case. Much is conjecture in terms of who the suspects could be, her grandmother said. If nothing turns up soon, she said, the family will explore their options, including hiring a private detective.

“It seems like we have become a society where children are not important anymore,” Thomas said. “Whether she ran away, went missing, or has been abducted, she is still just 12 years old.”

Jocelyn Thomas is approximately five feet tall and weighs approximately 110 pounds. She has a thin or medium build, and is Hispanic with olive complexion. She has brown eyes, and has dark brown shoulder length hair with bangs. She also has pierced ears and a small mole on her left check. She suffers from severe asthma.

She was last seen wearing a pink or red sweater with a white bubble vest, white jeans, and white sneakers.

According to a police spokesman said that no new information was available on Jocelyn Thomas’ disappearance as of press time.

If you have any information, please contact Missing Persons Bureau at (212) 694-7781 or (646) 671- 7560.