Family prays for 'Teeky Bug's' return
At the Orchard Volunteer Fire Department, which serves as the command center for volunteers and officials still searching for missing 12-year-old Teketria Buggs, family and friends of the young girl wait patiently for any sign of news that "Teeky Bug," as they call her, is alive and well.
Laronald Foy, Buggs' mother, said there have been no new developments or leads in the search since her daughter disappeared early Saturday morning.
However, Chief Deputy Craig Brady of the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office, said Buggs' stepfather, Steven Carrington, 31, has become a suspect in her disappearance.
"(Carrington) has been questioned extensively, but he has said very little," Brady said. "We have reason to believe he has knowledge of the disappearance, even if he was not directly involved in it. But we don't have enough evidence to charge him with anything."
The Texas EquuSearch Mounted Search and Rescue Team in fact did not pull out of the search Wednesday as was previously reported.
"We're doing everything in our power to bring her home," Phillips said. "We haven't found anything yet, but we're hitting every nook and cranny and ruling out places where she's not, so that's good.
"Right now, we have two boats and two jet skis in the (Brazos) River, the horses are still out canvassing the fields, and we've got teams on four-wheelers riding around looking for her."
Foy said she was at her mother's house in Houston at the time of the disappearance because her grandmother had passed away. She believes that as responsible as Buggs is, she would not have left the house without telling someone.
"I know my daughter, and I know that if someone took her, she would have left with someone she trusts with her whole heart," Foy said. "For her to leave the house without even asking her grandmother if she could go, I know it had to be someone she trusts."
Buggs was last seen asleep on the sofa bed next to her 10-year-old sister in her home Friday night. According to Foy, the family's dog did not bark the night Buggs disappeared, which leads her to believe it was not a stranger that might have come into the house.
In addition, Foy said her daughter left behind her purse and cell phone, things she treasures and never leaves the house without.
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