‘I just want him home’: Mother, police ask for public’s help finding 15-year-old
By Drew Marine
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VANCOUVER, Washington (KPTV) — A Vancouver mother is asking for the public’s help finding her 15-year-old son after he went missing Jan. 24.
Stacey Underwood is hoping someone will have information to help find her son, Antonio Martinez-Underwood.
“Not knowing where he’s at is really scary,” Underwood said. “Maybe he could be hurt, maybe he could be kidnapped. I don’t know. But I know he didn’t run away.”
Martinez-Underwood is 5 feet 5 inches tall, weighs 165 pounds, and has brown eyes and black hair.
The day before he went missing, Underwood said they spent time as a family celebrating his sister’s birthday and everything was normal.
“It was a perfect day,” she said. “No problems at all. My sister and nephew came over and we all had a party.”
In the middle of the night, her oldest son woke her up and said Antonio was gone.
“We started calling him at 2, to see where he was, for him to come home,” Underwood said. “2:10 came around after messaging, Facetime calling, the phone went off. I haven’t heard anything since then.”
When she called his school on Jan. 24 and learned he wasn’t there, she called the Vancouver Police Department.
Police said they believe Martinez-Underwood only planned to be gone a short amount of time and because of that, they said they’re not ruling out a pedestrian accident or kidnapping. The latter is something Underwood is really worried about.
“He’s just one of those kids that trusts anything and thinks that everyone’s a nice person,” she said. “But it’s not true.”
She said he spends time at the Evergreen Center at Northeast 49th Street and 112th Avenue. She asks everyone in the community to please keep an eye out for him.
“He’s the life of the party, he makes everybody happy,” she said. “It scares me because I don’t know what’s wrong with him, I don’t know where he’s at. If somebody knows where he’s at, I just want him home.”
If you have a doorbell or surveillance camera near the Evergreen Center area, Vancouver Police ask you take a look at video from Jan. 24 between 1 and 2 a.m. If you’ve seen Antonio or have video of him, you’re asked to call VPD’s Detective David Jensen at david.jensen@cityofvancouver.us or 360-487-7446 or call 911.
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