Kidnapped Teen Tori Wagner Found As Investigation Launches Surrounding Disappearance
Authorities in the state of New York have found missing teenager Victoria “Tori” Wagner. WGRZ News reports that the 17-year-old North Tonawanda girl was last seen in the residence she inhabited with her grandparents on June 14. It’s been over a week, and her loved ones were concerned that she might have fallen victim to foul play.
Detectives in New York say that Tori Wagner’s loved ones have been receiving messages on social media that could indicate that she was being held somewhere against her will. This is an absolutely troubling suspicion because anything could have happened to the 17-year-old missing teen. Fortunately, she was found shortly after the news went viral about her disappearance. She claimed that her captors released her after they saw her disappearance covered in the news.
Have you seen Tori Wagner? North Tonawanda PD think she’s being held against her will @news4buffalo pic.twitter.com/7WKpdEKt0t
— Callan Gray (@CallanGray4) June 22, 2016
WKBW reports that Victoria Wagner, called “Tori” by her loved ones, left her grandparents’ home in the very early morning hours of June 14. The circumstances surrounding how she left and the exact time have not been clarified in any media reports as of this writing. Furthermore, social media is only just starting to catch wind of this bizarre case.
Missing teen Victoria “Tori” Wagner has been found. North Tonawanda Police just released this statement. pic.twitter.com/7IBnwuUV1r
— 7 Eyewitness News (@WKBW) June 22, 2016
What’s disturbing about this disappearance is that authorities in North Tonawanda also believed that this teen may have been taken and held against her will. In other words, this is not just a sneaking suspicion being shared only by Tori’s loved ones. However, detectives in the New York town have not addressed their plans on investigating this disappearance. When she was still missing, authorities did not clarify on whether or not they believed she’d be found safely or alive.
Detectives are also not clarifying the nature of the social media messages the missing teen’s family have received. However, it’s been confirmed that the messages have come through the popular app Snapchat. Tori’s loved ones are also not clarifying what the messages said or what they may have been photos of. This information is likely being kept from the public due to the sensitive nature of this investigation and the urgency behind the search for Victoria Wagner.
This is not the first time a teen’s disappearance has caused concern regarding an abduction. Earlier this year, a 17-year-old Texas teen sparked alert when she went missing for approximately 24 hours. Authorities even issued an Amber Alert for Keidra Kirby, who was allegedly kidnapped by two unknown male subjects. However, the teen was later arrested for faking the entire abduction.
Last year, a teenager made use of Snapchat to alert his friends that he had been kidnapped. The teen was indeed kidnapped at gunpoint by a 32-year-old man. During the course of the kidnapping, the 16-year-old boy used Snapchat to secretly send pictures of what was happening to his friends. The friends alerted his father, who notified authorities. It was thanks to the teen’s fast thinking and social media that he was able to escape the ordeal alive.
Authorities in New York say that 17-year-old Tori Wagner stands at approximately five-foot-four and weighs 115 pounds. She has strawberry blonde hair and has a nose piercing. She was last seen wearing a pair of black leggings with a T-shirt and grey hoodie. She may have been wearing black sneakers at the time of her disappearance. Now that she’s been found, an investigation into her disappearance is underway to determine who, if anyone, was holding her captive.
[Image via North Tonawanda Police Department/Family of Tori Wagner]
