Gregg County Runaway May Have Been Spotted in Colorado

LIBERTY CITY — Family members of a Liberty City teenager missing since April say a person matching her description has been spotted near Leadville, Colorado — a small town about 100 miles west of Denver. That’s according to KETK and the Longview News-Journal. Vickie Raymond, Paiglynn Raymond’s grandmother, said over the weekend two East Texas men traveling through Colorado on business saw a young girl wandering around a gas station, and it struck both of them as strange. “They considered asking her if she needed transportation, but they didn’t want to scare her,” she said.

Raymond said the men were worried about the girl, because the gas station was in a remote location and she seemed “aimless.” “They continued where they were going, but both agreed that if she was still there when they came back by they would ask her if she needed help,” she said. When the men drove by the gas station again, the girl was gone. Upon returning to Texas, one of the men told his supervisor about the encounter. When shown a poster of the missing girl, he believed it was Paiglynn.

Gregg County Sheriff’s Office Investigator Jon Fulgham, detective in charge of the case, immediately contacted authorities in the area, who confirmed multiple sightings of the girl matching Paiglynn’s description between Leadville and Copper Mountain in Colorado. As a result, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation issued a statewide alert. Raymond said with the alert designating Paiglynn as “missing and endangered,” the family is hopeful the added concentration of Colorado law enforcement — in addition to the thousands on social media — leads to a break in the case. “It’s the most encouraging news we’ve had in a while,” she said. “We’d just like to thank everyone who’s continued to spread the word, and ask them all to continue to keep her in their prayers.” Paiglynn, 15, disappeared April 17 after hitching a ride with a truck driver to Grapevine, police said.