GREENFIELD, OHio — Highland County High School senior Madison Bell has been missing since Sunday, May 17. Her car was found in a church parking lot with her cell phone inside and the keys in the ignition.
Wednesday night, hundreds gathered for a prayer vigil in the parking lot of the Greenfield Church of Christ.
“It’s great to feel the support,” Madison’s father, Bill Bell said. “To know you’re not alone in this battle. It’s an uphill battle. And they’re pushing you up the hill, and not letting you fall down.’
The small town gathering hoped to get the message out in a big way. The Bell family is trying to get the information about Madison's disappearance out as far and as loud as they can – hoping that someone who knows or saw something will come forward.
“Just seems like hours,” Bell said. “Like a nightmare. Like a runaway train you just can’t get off of.”
Madison told her mother, Melissa, she was going to the tanning salon on Sunday – she never made it. Hours later, her car and phone were found across the street.
“For her to be taken, and not to be any kind of clues, anything like that,” Greenfield Church of Christ associate minister Dusty Barrett said. “That’s the fear, that’s the worry.”
Friends and family said Madison is always laughing and loved to help people. The senior cheerleader wanted to go to school for nursing.
For the Bell family – they’re just praying for her return.
“I know they said, I know she didn’t go,” Bill Bell said. “She had to be abducted or something. She wasn’t going to miss my birthday, the senior events or nothing around here. Whoever has her. Drop her off somewhere. We won’t worry about it. Just as long as she’s home. Safe and sound."
The Bell family is offering a $15,000 reward for anyone with information that leads to Madison’s return.
“Please come home,” Madison’s father, Bill Bell, said. “Do what you can. I know you’re a tough girl. Do what you can.”
Multiple law enforcement agencies are investigating her disappearance: The Highland County Sheriff's Office, the Ross County Sheriff's Office, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations and the Greenfield Police Department.
Bell has brown hair, brown eyes, stands roughly 5-feet-6-inches tall and weighs around 120-125 pounds.
Police said she has a cross tattoo on her neck and a ghost tattoo on her side.
Anyone with information about her whereabouts should call the Highland County Sheriff's Office at 937-393-1421.
