Taylor Shiflet: Teen Missing Under Bizarre Circumstances
What happened to Taylor Shiflet? The 19-year-old Arizona woman is at the center of a frantic search after she disappeared while in San Diego with her boyfriend. ABC News 10 reports that the teen’s parents fear the worst in this bizarre disappearance — and their accusations are pointing in the direction of her boyfriend.
Shiflet was reportedly in San Diego for a job interview that had been lined up for both her and her boyfriend, Matthew Gray. She was seen by loved ones with Gray last Monday, when the duo boarded a Greyhound bus leaving for San Diego. Their supposed job interviews were for the following day. She was seen again later that day at a motel in San Diego, proving that the couple did in fact make it to their destination. However, she has not been seen since the motel sighting, and her mother thinks that something horrible may have happened to her.
“My first gut is he hurt her and won’t tell us where she is, that’s my first gut. I pray he didn’t, but that’s my first gut. My second gut says someone stole her and is using her, she’s gorgeous.”
Taylor Shiflet was scheduled to return to Phoenix on Wednesday following her job interview, and had made plans to spend time with her mother. However, she never made it back to Arizona. Over the course of the past week, the missing woman’s mother has traveled back and forth between Phoenix and San Diego in hopes of finding her. She has passed out flyers along Ocean Beach and Mission Beach in San Diego — an area where she believes she may have been with Matthew Gray.
RT! #Missing in #SanDiego Area #TaylorShiflet aka #TaylorLaurita since 2/22https://t.co/iwi3suJCpV #FindTaylor pic.twitter.com/nOG9HQFlHW
— team_sierra (@team_sierra1) February 29, 2016
* * MISSING: TAYLOR SHIFLET * *
* * * * PLEASE HELP * * * * pic.twitter.com/soG6pwzLQv— Ivan Plascencia (@livewire43) March 1, 2016
As for Gray, the Arizona man has been arrested and placed under psychiatric care — adding even more urgency and suspicion to this disappearance. He was reportedly arrested the day after he and Taylor Shiflet arrived in San Diego. ABC News 15 reports that the man was booked on trespassing charges when he was found trespassing at a Mission Hills, California, home — a short distance from the motel where Shiflet was last seen.
The homeowners, who called police on Matt Gray, said he was apparently having a “psychotic breakdown,” and was trapped in their backyard. They also say he was crying at the time of his arrest, and left behind two rings.
//
Please continue to share! It is just heartbreaking to watch her family go through this! I cannot begin to imagine if…
Posted by Amy Edwards on Tuesday, March 1, 2016
When asked what happened to Taylor Shiflet, Matthew Gray reportedly said that he left her at a beach when they were in San Diego. He says he “lost her.” The missing woman’s mother doesn’t know what to make of his comments, but is in fear that he either hurt her or someone took her.
Gray’s father says that he suffers from bipolar disorder, and is known to have episodes like the one that led to his recent arrest. He claims that he warned Taylor himself against traveling alone to San Diego with his son. He said that he had been”acting odd lately,” but the missing woman shrugged off the warnings. Now authorities in San Diego are trying to find out what may have happened to her.
If you have any information that could be of use to investigators, or if you believe you may have sighted Taylor Shiflet, please do not hesitate to call the San Diego Police Department at (619) 531-2000.
[Photo via Twitter (via San Diego Police)]
