For nearly a week, a Pavillion family has been waiting for 17-year-old Elizabeth "Lizzy" Barrett to come home.
Lizzy has been missing since Sept. 8, when her family believes she climbed out her bedroom window sometime during the night.
Her father, Charles “CJ” Barrett, said she had never done anything like that.
Now her photograph is circulating across Wyoming, and the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation has listed the 17-year-old as missing while her family tries to piece together where she could have gone.
“We just need her home,” Barrett told Cowboy State Daily. “It'd mean the world to have her back.”
Gone In The Night
Barrett said some of Elizabeth’s clothes were gone, as was a maroon-and-white L.L.Bean hiking backpack.
The family was left with an empty bedroom and the belongings she did — and didn't — take with her.
Her active cellphone was left behind.
That phone is important because it is the one her parents knew about and could use to keep in contact.
Barrett said the family believes Elizabeth took two older cellphones that no longer have active service.
Elizabeth also had some friction in her life leading up to the night she disappeared. Barrett said his daughter was with problems in a relationship with someone outside the family.
Still, they have few clues about what happened after she was outside — whether she stayed around Pavillion, left the area or how long she intended to be gone.
Behind The Poster
The Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation's missing-person poster gives the information necessary for someone to recognize Elizabeth.
She's 17, 5-foot-4 and weighs about 134 pounds. She has brown hair and brown eyes.
She was last seen wearing a gray sweatshirt, jeans and pink sneakers.
DCI says her last known contact was Sept. 8 in Fremont County.
“Elizabeth is shy,” Barrett said.
She likes children. She likes camping and being outdoors with her family, and she collects old fishing lures left along shorelines as a hobby.
What scares her parents most, Barrett said, is her “being hurt.”
His mind has inevitably gone to frightening possibilities about what could have happened once Elizabeth left the house, but the family doesn't know what happened after she left, and law enforcement has not publicly said there is evidence another person was involved in her disappearance.
For Barrett, that uncertainty is the hardest part, he told Cowboy State Daily on Monday.
‘Still Actively Searching’
Fremont County Undersheriff Mike Hutchinson told Cowboy State Daily on Monday afternoon that the search for Elizabeth remains active, adding that detectives continue to work through information gathered in the case.
Any time a juvenile is out on their own, there is the potential for danger, he said. But at this point in the investigation, authorities have found nothing suggesting Elizabeth is in immediate danger or that her disappearance is anything other than a runaway case.
The investigation remains ongoing.
Elizabeth's disappearance has also left her soon-to-be 13-year-old brother waiting for his sister to come home.
"He's trying to be tough" said Lizzy's mother, Shara.
Meanwhile, she said relatives and people throughout the community have been reaching out to the family, offering support and helping spread the word about Elizabeth's disappearance.
The passing days haven't changed what Barrett wants.
He isn't asking his daughter to explain herself before coming back. He isn't interested in whatever trouble she might think she's in.
He wants to know she's safe.
Anyone who sees Elizabeth or has information about where she may be is asked to contact the Fremont County Sheriff's Office at 307-332-5611 or the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation at 307-777-7181.
Kolby Fedore can be reached at kolby@cowboystatedaily.com.
