Family, friends and police continue to search for Shalaya “Shay” Porter, an 18-year-old Philadelphia high school senior who has been missing for more than a week. NBC10’s Aaron Baskerville spoke with the teen’s mother and aunt.
Family, friends and police are searching for a Philadelphia teenager who went missing last week.
Shalaya Porter, 18, was last seen on June 5 near her grandmother's home on the 4600 block of Fairmount Avenue.
Family members told NBC10 Porter left her phone on her bed and didn’t show up for her high school graduation on Friday. The family said it was highly unusual for Porter to go missing and she had a great attendance record at her school. They also said she is headed to Morgan State University in the fall to study architecture, design and fashion.
"Shalaya would have never missed her graduation," Porter's aunt, Felicia Hill, told NBC10. "Shalaya would have never missed the opportunity to go to college. Shalaya would have never left her mom."
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A gathering to help with the search effort was held Tuesday at 3 p.m. at Motivation High School on 59th Street and Baltimore Avenue where Porter attended. Friends and family handed out around 3,000 flyers in all to drivers passing by.
Porter’s mother, Kaleia Porter, fought back tears as she spoke about her daughter during Tuesday’s gathering.
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“My daughter is a beautiful, wonderful, smart, intelligent, young lady,” she said.
Porter stands 5-foot-6 and weighs 120 pounds with brown eyes, a light brown complexion, black hair and a nose piercing. Police said she is also known to use public transportation.
If you have any information on her whereabouts, please call the Philadelphia Police Southwest Detective Division at 215-686-3183 or 911.
