Oregon Teen-Ager Disappears in Brazil

Brutuskend

Lifer
Apr 2, 2001
26,558
4
0
Oregon Teen-Ager Disappears in Brazil
By PAULO WINTERSTEIN, Associated Press Writer
Wed Nov 9, 2:18 PM


SAO PAULO, Brazil - A 17-year-old American exchange student missing in Brazil was seen trying to hitchhike to the capital the day she disappeared, Brazilian authorities said Wednesday.

Mykensie Martin, a senior at Summit High School in Bend, Ore., was reported missing Sunday, said Kreg and Judy Roth of the Rotary Youth Exchange Program in Bend.

A witness spotted the girl Sunday evening on the side of a highway leading to Brasilia from the town of Unai, about 80 miles from the capital, said Unai police detective Celso Avila Prado.

Martin told the witness she was on her way to an event sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Brasilia and did not have enough money for a bus ticket, Prado said.

The witness told police the teen appeared nervous, but believed it was because she did not have enough money for a ticket, he said.

The Roths said Martin left her host city of Carmo do Paranaiba early Sunday to travel 38 miles by bus to Patos de Minas, where she attends a Mormon church.

Investigators said that instead of returning, she changed her bus ticket to travel 150 miles to Unai, Kreg Roth said Tuesday. A detective interviewed a bus fee collector who identified Martin as riding the bus all the way to Unai.

It was unclear why the teen went to Unai, though the town lies between her host city and Brasilia.

The FBI is working with its office in Brazil, as well as family members and the sheriff's office in Oregon, said FBI spokeswoman Beth Anne Steele in Portland.

"We're trying to determine exactly what happened, how it happened and when it happened," Steele said.

Martin's parents were scheduled to fly to Brazil on Wednesday. The teen left Oregon in July for a yearlong stay in Brazil.

"We're preparing for the worst and hoping for the best," the teen's father, Steve Martin, told The Bulletin newspaper of Bend. "We just feel we need to get down there because we can't effectively communicate from here and we need to be there to find out anything we can."

Unai police visited hotels in the city of 65,000 people, but found nobody else who had seen Martin, Prado said. He said there was no immediate sign that a crime was committed.

Officials with the Mormon church in Brazil referred requests for comment to a media relations office in Sao Paulo, but no one answered the phone there.

U.S. officials in Brazil are in contact with the girl's family, said Maryann McKay, a spokeswoman for the American consulate in Rio de Janeiro.

Martin's father told The Bulletin that his daughter last used her ATM card on Saturday, when she withdrew $12.

He said she understands Portuguese well enough to get around but isn't fluent.

"It's inconsistent with her character to just up and walk away," Deschutes County Sheriff Les Stiles told KTVZ-TV in Bend. "This isn't a person that does that, based on her background and how she's been in the past."

 

Zim Hosein

Super Moderator | Elite Member
Super Moderator
Nov 27, 1999
65,135
399
126
<-- Patiently waits for the call to "boycott" Brazil!
 

RbSX

Diamond Member
Jan 18, 2002
8,351
1
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Well, white, mormon, young.. this will be ALL OVER CNN.

Who the fvck hitchhikes still? There is ALOT of risk associated with that type of thing.
 

myusername

Diamond Member
Jun 8, 2003
5,046
0
0
I don't know whether to be upset that her parents are idiots, or relieved that their genetic line will not be continued.
 

Ameesh

Lifer
Apr 3, 2001
23,686
0
0
Originally posted by: RyanSengara
Well, white, mormon, young.. this will be ALL OVER CNN.

Who the fvck hitchhikes still? There is ALOT of risk associated with that type of thing.

seriously, dumb bitch, people get kidnapped in south america all the time and she goes and hitchikes in backcountry, shes getting what evers coming to her.
 

Captante

Lifer
Oct 20, 2003
30,333
10,842
136
Teenage girl hitch-hiking ...hmm... pretty bad idea here in the US & downright foolish in backcountry Brazil.
 

NikPreviousAcct

No Lifer
Aug 15, 2000
52,763
1
0
Originally posted by: Ameesh
Originally posted by: RyanSengara
Well, white, mormon, young.. this will be ALL OVER CNN.

Who the fvck hitchhikes still? There is ALOT of risk associated with that type of thing.

seriously, dumb bitch, people get kidnapped in south america all the time and she goes and hitchikes in backcountry, shes getting what evers coming to her.

Pretty much. Just like that stupid chick that got kidnapped in the carribean last year or so on a high school trip. Act stupid. Prime target. What do you EXPECT to happen? Sheesh, people, use some common ****** sense.
 

TallBill

Lifer
Apr 29, 2001
46,017
62
91
Originally posted by: Nik
Originally posted by: Ameesh
Originally posted by: RyanSengara
Well, white, mormon, young.. this will be ALL OVER CNN.

Who the fvck hitchhikes still? There is ALOT of risk associated with that type of thing.

seriously, dumb bitch, people get kidnapped in south america all the time and she goes and hitchikes in backcountry, shes getting what evers coming to her.

Pretty much. Just like that stupid chick that got kidnapped in the carribean last year or so on a high school trip. Act stupid. Prime target. What do you EXPECT to happen? Sheesh, people, use some common ****** sense.

I'm still in disbelief that a high school would go on an official trip to Aruba and bring teenagers to teh bar. WTF
 

NikPreviousAcct

No Lifer
Aug 15, 2000
52,763
1
0
Originally posted by: TallBill
Originally posted by: Nik
Originally posted by: Ameesh
Originally posted by: RyanSengara
Well, white, mormon, young.. this will be ALL OVER CNN.

Who the fvck hitchhikes still? There is ALOT of risk associated with that type of thing.

seriously, dumb bitch, people get kidnapped in south america all the time and she goes and hitchikes in backcountry, shes getting what evers coming to her.

Pretty much. Just like that stupid chick that got kidnapped in the carribean last year or so on a high school trip. Act stupid. Prime target. What do you EXPECT to happen? Sheesh, people, use some common ****** sense.

I'm still in disbelief that a high school would go on an official trip to Aruba and bring teenagers to teh bar. WTF

I'm in disbelief that a high school would take an official trip to Aruba and expect to have any control over silly immature high school students. ;)
 

Howard

Lifer
Oct 14, 1999
47,982
10
81
It's understandable that hitchhiking alone (in Brazil) greatly increases the risk to one's person, but how can you say that she deserves something like that?
 

uhohs

Diamond Member
Oct 29, 2005
7,660
44
91
Originally posted by: Howard
It's understandable that hitchhiking alone (in Brazil) greatly increases the risk to one's person, but how can you say that she deserves something like that?

they're insensitive pricks that need to protect their e-reputations?
 

NascarFool

Golden Member
Feb 29, 2000
1,001
0
71
The witness told police the teen appeared nervous, but believed it was because she did not have enough money for a ticket, he said.

Hmmm . . .one does not get nervous over the lack of bus fare.
 

daveymark

Lifer
Sep 15, 2003
10,573
1
0
if she would have straightened her hair and put in some blue contacts before she left, she would have had a better chance of beinfg found