Authorities are asking for the public’s help in locating two missing teenage sisters from Tennessee who may be in Kentucky.
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and the Robertson County (TN) Sheriff’s Office say 17-year-old Kayla Ward and 14-year-old Brooke Ward went missing from Springfield, Tennessee, 91 miles south of Leitchfield, on Friday, January 12.
Kayla is described as standing 5-5 and weighing 134 pounds. She has brown hair and blue eyes. Brooke is also 5-5 and weighs 128 pounds. She has red hair and hazel eyes.
ABC News reported that the sister’s adoptive mother, Lisa Ward, found a handwritten note in Brooke’s handwriting that said in part, “just pray for me. I am going to find some place that will help me, the help I think I need and not your help. Please don’t come looking for me. They are be taking good care of me so don’t worry either I love you.”
Brooke and Kayla were adopted by Ward and her husband Todd Ward in 2010. Their biological mother had a long history of drug abuse and prostitution and both girls suffer from reactive attachment disorder, according to media reports. Reactive detachment disorder is a condition found in children who may have received grossly negligent care and do not form a healthy emotional attachment with their primary caregivers, usually their birth mother, before the age of five, according to the Mayo Clinic.
The sisters were featured on the television program 20/20 in 2011 in a story about the over-medication of children in foster care. According to that report, Brooke was at one time on 13 different psychotropic drugs (which changes brain function and results in alterations in perception, mood, consciousness, or behavior).
Anyone with information on the location of the sisters is asked to contact the Robertson County Sheriff’s Office at 615-382-6600, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678), or local law enforcement.
By Ken Howlett, News Director
Contact Ken at ken@k105.com or 270-259-6000
