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Human Rights Group Calls for Intensified Search and Reclassification in Case of Missing Coral Springs Teen Skylee Merino

Skylee Merino {CSPD}

A human rights organization is calling on the Coral Springs Police Department to intensify its investigation into the disappearance of Skylee Merino, a 15-year-old Coral Springs girl who has been missing since April 21 and, according to them, has not made contact with her family in nine days.

The Human Rights Association, based in South Africa, is also calling on the department to treat the case as an endangered missing child investigation until the evidence establishes otherwise, and to ensure that continuous, senior-level investigative attention is applied to the case without interruption, the organization said in a written announcement Thursday.

HRA said Skylee’s case is currently classified as a “voluntary runaway,” which the family strongly disputes.

The organization, led by Chairman Saad Kassis-Mohamed, said in a press release that Merino “left home at three in the morning to meet a man she knew only from Snapchat — a man who had told her to keep him untraceable.”

“She has not been heard from in nine days. Her family are desperate,” Kassis-Mohamed said.

Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding HRA’s statements.

According to HRA, Skylee’s family said she was picked up from her home in Coral Springs around 3:23 a.m. on April 21 and was subsequently dropped at the Cypress Commons Plaza in Tamarac around 8:30 a.m., where she had arranged to meet an unidentified male she had been communicating with on Snapchat. The male had explicitly instructed Skylee not to follow him on social media, leaving his identity unknown to her family and, as yet, unconfirmed by investigators, HRA said.

Skylee has not responded to any messages from family or friends since her arrival at the plaza. Her last known social media activity was recorded around 4 p.m. on April 21, according to HRA. She has not been seen or heard from since.

Skylee left her primary mobile phone and Apple Watch at home on the morning of her disappearance. Her family has since established that she may have had access to a secondary device they were previously unaware of, HRA said.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has shared Skylee’s case, and the Coral Springs Police Department has received a significant number of public inquiries about their investigation.

The HRA said the circumstances of Skylee’s disappearance — a 15-year-old leaving home in the early hours of the morning to meet an unidentified adult male who had actively sought to conceal his identity from those close to her — are consistent with well-documented patterns of online exploitation and child trafficking.

The Coral Springs Police Department, in a Facebook post this week, said its detectives are diligently working to identify the unknown male Skylee was in contact with on Snapchat, and asked anyone with information to come forward. The department said that at this time it has not received any information indicating that Skylee is in danger, and urged anyone aware of her whereabouts to contact authorities, calling it a priority that she return home safely to her family.

The HRA is an initiative of the WeCare Foundation, based in Cape Town, active across Africa, South Asia, and the Gulf region.

The organization is calling on any members of the public who were present at or near the Cypress Commons Plaza in Tamarac on the morning of April 21, or who have any information about the unidentified male Skylee was meeting, to contact Coral Springs Police detectives at 954-346-1223 or by email at dpowers@coralsprings.gov.

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Author Profile

Kevin Deutsch

Kevin Deutsch is an award-winning journalist and author of two nonfiction books. He covers general assignment news and Jewish community issues for Talk Media. He has also worked as a staff writer at The Miami Times, the Rio Grande SUN, the New York Daily News, Newsday, The Miami Herald, The Palm Beach Post, The Riverdale Press, and Bronx Justice News.