By Chris Jewers For Mailonline
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A mother has appealed for help in finding her 20-year-old daughter who vanished three weeks ago after a ‘frantic’ phone call saying she had fought with her boyfriend.
Lateche Norris flew from her home in Indiana to meet her boyfriend Joseph Smith in San Diego. According to her mother Cheryl Walker, Lateche last spoke to her family on a stranger’s phone on November 5, days after she left.
Smith reportedly had recently left a rehab facility and was living on the street.
In her appeal in a Facebook post, Walker wrote: ‘My daughter is just as important as Gabby Petito,’ in reference to the woman who went missing while on a road trip with her fiance Brian Laundrie and was later found murdered.
‘As if what happened to that sweet girl wasn’t heartbreaking enough,’ Walter added.
Lateche Norris (pictured) last spoke to her family on a stranger’s phone on November 5, days after she left her home to meet with her boyfriend – Joseph Smith – in San Diego. Her family are fearing the worst, and are calling on the San Diego Police Department to do more
Lateche, from Indiana, left to visit her boyfriend (pictured right) days before last speaking to her family on the phone on November 5. Her social media activity stopped on the same day
In the post, Walker described her daughter as sounding frantic in their phone conversation, and explained that she had been in a fight with her boyfriend.
Lateche, from Indiana, said that she needed his number so that she could call him.
However, she didn’t say why she didn’t have access to her own phone, or tell her mother what the fight had been about.
Lateche promised to call her back the next day, but the second call never came.
Speaking to local media, Walker said that the couple had fallen out before, and claimed there had been some instances of domestic violence in the past.
‘She definitely would have called me back,’ Walker said, adding that her daughter would never go more than a couple of days without getting in contact.
‘If her phone was dead, she would’ve found a way to charge it. Or call me from someone’s phone like that day,’ she told NBC Dateline. ‘Something is wrong. Now the days are just flying by with no word from her. And we’re terrified.’
Walker filed a missing person report with the San Diego Police Department the day after the call on November 5.
San Diego PD Spokesperson Lieutenant Adam Sharki said the case is active and ongoing, but added that investigators do not believe Lateche is currently ‘at risk.’
‘We just don’t have enough information at this point,’ Lt. Sharki said, according to Dateline. ‘We’re still working to pinpoint the exact time and place she was last seen. Any tips are helpful at this point so we can piece it together.’
The young woman’s friends and family disagree with the department’s assertion.
‘How many times do we have to see a young girl go missing after fighting with her husband or boyfriend or significant other, and how often does it have to end in nothing positive, before we start taking this a little more serious?’ Walker said.
Joseph Smith (pictured with Tattoo sketches) reportedly had recently left a rehab facility and was living on the street. He and Lateche are both aspiring tattoo artists, Lateche’s mother said
The mother said she did not want to unfairly implicate Smith, whom she claimed has a criminal record including arson and vandalism.
He also is reportedly not answering any of her calls or messages, but has been active on social media since November 5, when Lateche’s social media activity stopped.
Walker has flown from Indiana to San Diego with her husband and Lateche’s step-father Amir Walker, and Lateche’s grandfather Walter Omega Cullum, and have been searching for her there, so far with no luck.
‘We bought one-way tickets,’ Walker said to Dateline. ‘I’ll figure out the rest when we get there, but we’re going to flip the city upside down looking for my daughter.’
The last known sighting of their daughter was on November 4 at a 7-Eleven at 222 Park Blvd, with police saying they are working to confirm other possible sightings.
Walker describes her daughter as 5 feet 8 inches. She is around 160 pounds, with dark brown hair and eyes.
She also has a number of tattoos: An arrow on her left forearm, a seven-inch blade on her right calf, a dreamcatcher on her left shoulder blade and unknown words tattooed across her knuckles.
She is believed to have been wearing black leggings, a black sweatshirt, black pants with white tennis shoes and carrying a white and black checked backpack, on the day that she is thought to have disappeared.
So far, investigators have refused to comment on whether Smith was with her when she was last seen.
Lateche lived in Indiana her whole live until she moved to Santa Cruz earlier this year with smith. They are both hoping to become tattoo artists.
Her mother said she moved back home to Indiana for two months, before flying out to see Smith in San Diego just days before their last phone call.
‘We begged her not to go,’ Walker told Dateline. ‘I regret not stopping her.’
In her Facebook post, Walker criticised the SDPD for not doing enough to find her daughter, writing: ‘[SDPD] chose to ignore the red flags and try to push a narrative that ‘we see this all the time.’
She told local media: ‘It feels like she’s in over her head … This isn’t a 20-year-old girl not calling her family because she’s busy or mad. Something is wrong.
‘This is not like her.’
Anyone with any information on Lateche Norris’ whereabouts is being encouraged to call the SDPD at 619-531-2446 and reference case number 21-501043.
‘If the public has any information, or if you recognize her, give us a call and we’ll check it out,’ Lieutenant Sharki said. ‘Anything is helpful.’
Published by Associated Newspapers Ltd
Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group