On the night of August 20, 2010, 16-year-old Carlee Jade Morse left her Westland, Michigan, apartment between midnight and 1:00 a.m. after asking her mother for permission to step outside to make a phone call. She went out barefoot in pajamas and left behind her purse, money, extra clothing and other belongings; her cell phone showed no activity after she vanished. Carlee was about 5 feet tall, weighed around 90 to 100 pounds, had long brown hair, brown eyes, pierced ears, and burn scars on her left waist and the inside of her right ankle. She had been receiving medical care at the time, and nothing in the apartment suggested she planned to run away.

Within months the missing-person investigation produced confessions from two local men, Nicholas Jay Cottrell and Justin Lee Yoshikawa. Court testimony described Yoshikawa as having been upset over a breakup with Carlee; prosecutors said the two men lured her into Cottrell’s 1998 Ford Escort with an invitation to smoke marijuana, with Yoshikawa hidden in the backseat. Carlee’s remains have never been recovered.

Convictions were obtained in the case, but the inability to locate Carlee’s body has left her family without full closure. If anyone knew Carlee, saw the Escort that night, or has information about a red brick church and its trash area one to two hours south of Westland, please come forward.