Det. Roberto Herrera heads the missing persons division for New Castle County Police in Delaware. I sat down with him for an exclusive interview about Janteyl Johnson's case.
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We know Janteyl, then 15 and five months pregnant, was communicating with several older men, including the father of her unborn child, the day she vanished. Investigators believe she may have left with one of those men. 
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Janteyl's family doesn't believe she left on her own. They feel she was lured from their apartment and are holding out hope that she and her child will be found alive.
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The security footage from what used to be a PathMark grocery store in Newark, Delaware, shows Janteyl Johnson, 15, walking in to buy candy. It's the middle of winter, Feb. 3, 2010. She's wearing a puffer jacket, blue jeans, and sneakers. Her braids are tied back in a ponytail.
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Janteyl, five months pregnant at the time, pays at a self-checkout register. When she exits the store at 12:31 p.m., she's talking on her cell phone and stops to scratch her leg, then continues walking home. The two-and-a-half-minute clip is the last confirmed sighting of the teen. An hour later, Janteyl vanished from her family's apartment and has not been seen or heard from ever since. 

​​The never before seen video of Janteyl buying a bag of candy is a reminder that she was a child, and no one has been held accountable for her disappearance. 
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​Herrera, a 19-year-veteran of the New Castle County Police Department, made Janteyl's case a priority when he took over the missing persons division in 2018. 
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​A missing pregnant child should've made headlines, but Janteyl didn't get wall-to-wall media coverage. She didn't become a household name. There was no social media frenzy over her disappearance. Janteyl was barely mentioned in the news. A few online outlets have recently written about Janteyl, and a few podcasts have featured her story. 
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But what if from the start, when it mattered most, Janteyl's disappearance had generated the type of media coverage that Gabby Petito or Lacy Peterson received? Perhaps Janteyl would've been found, and whoever's responsible for her disappearance would've been brought to justice by now. 
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I first covered Janteyl's disappearance in 2010 for the outlet I worked for at the time. I interviewed her mother, twice, but because Janteyl was classified as a runaway, there was no further interest in covering her case. Some local papers in Delaware did mention Janteyl, but as far as extensive media coverage goes, her case got lost over the years.

We know Janteyl was talking to several older men the day she vanished, including the alleged father of her unborn child. Her family says he was the last person who called Janteyl and that her cell phone later pinged near his relative's home. Det. Herrera didn't confirm that information and has not named any suspects. Instead, he focused on the department's efforts to generate leads in the case.

​​“At the end of 2019 we put up a billboard in Delaware with her picture, and we also put her picture and information on a deck of playing cards and distributed them in jails and prisons in Delaware," said Herrera, "and we actually got a good lead that I cannot go into detail at this point.”

​Herrera wants Janteyl's family to know that she hasn't been forgotten. He feels this case can be solved, and is turning to the public for help.

IF YOU KNOW WHERE JANTEYL IS, PLEASE CALL 911 OR THE NEW CASTLE COUNTY POLICE AT: 302-395-2784​

​Funny, feisty, and full of love for her family is how Janel Kirby-Brinson describes her little sister, Janteyl Johnson.

​"Janteyl is a beautiful soul. She's the type of person that if you meet her, you will remember her," Janel told me during a recent interview at her North Philadelphia home.

Janteyl, affectionally known as Puff because of her puffy cheeks when she was a baby, was a typical teenager who enjoyed singing, dancing, and playing pranks on her siblings. She also ran track, loved to do hair, and was a big fan of Betty Boop.

Soft-spoken and shy, Janel, a mother of four, hasn't seen Janteyl in 12 years. She says talking about her disappearance is like pouring salt on an open wound. 
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Janel was 23 and had two kids when Janteyl, then 15 and five months pregnant, vanished on Feb. 3, 2010. Janteyl's sudden disappearance also took its toll on her niece and nephew.

"Puff and my son were very close. He adored her! When she went missing they would sleep with her picture on their pillow"

Both, now teenagers, still ask about their aunt Puff.
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​The sisters shared a close bond. It was Janel who Janteyl first confided in about her pregnancy and asked if she would take her to the doctor for a test. When they got the results, they broke the news, first to their mom, before telling the rest of the family. 

​"Of course, there was some disappointment because she got pregnant young. That would be disappointing for any family if their child got pregnant young," Janel continued, "but when she went missing there was no argument in the family. Everyone came to accept it. What can you do at this point? There was no getting rid of it; therefore, it was, okay, let's move forward.”
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The family turned their attention to the alleged father of Janteyl's unborn child and were stunned to learn that he was a 27-year-old man who reportedly lied to Janteyl about his age.

​“She told me that he said he was much younger, closer to her age, and I asked her, 'Does he know about the baby?' She said, 'Yes.' " Janel said. 

Janteyl reportedly met the alleged father of her child in Wilmington, Delaware, where she and her family lived before moving 15 miles south to Newark in 2010. According to Janel, when Janteyl told him about the pregnancy, he panicked.
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In Delaware, it is illegal for an adult (someone 18 or older) to have sex with a minor (a person 15 or younger), even if the sex is consensual.

The last incoming call to Janteyl's phone was at 1:38 p.m. the day she disappeared, New Castle County police confirm. Janel believes the call was from the baby's father, but investigators have not publicly released that information or the man's identity. According to police, citing Janteyl's phone records, not long after the last incoming call, Janteyl stopped answering her phone. Hours later, according to Janel, Janteyl's phone pinged near the home of one of the man's relatives. The pregnant teenager was never seen or heard from again.
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"I believe he called her and said he wanted to talk to her about the baby, and it was his way of getting her in the car, and his way of going on with his plan…whatever his plan was. But I do not think his plan was for her to return.”

​​Janteyl's case is complex. Unbeknownst to her family, in addition to the alleged father of her child, Janteyl was also communicating by phone with two other much older men the day she vanished, New Castle County police confirm. But because no one at the apartment complex saw her talking to or arguing with anyone or getting in a car, there is no concrete evidence that makes clear what happened to Janteyl when she walked out of the apartment. According to New Castle County police, of the three men Janteyl was in contact with that day, only one agreed to speak with investigators. The other two, including the alleged father of her child, have not been cooperative with the investigation then or now.

​“I can’t call him a man because a man wouldn’t do those things," Janel said. "It gives you a sense of anger because how dare you take the joy and life and future and freedom of my sister, and you still get to live your life?”

She also expressed her disgust with the other men who were contacting Janteyl.

"Why were you even talking to a 15-year-old child? What could you possibly have in common with her? She was a child!" 

Investigators have not publicly identified any of the men Janteyl was talking to and have not named any suspects in connection to her disappearance. Janel brings up a good point: Why were these men engaging with a child? 
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More to come...

May 25 is National Missing Children's Day. Please take a moment to share the picture of a missing child in your area. It takes a few seconds and it can really make a difference. 
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I had an interesting few weeks working on a couple stories in Texas. As luck would have it, we stumbled upon an interesting situation possibly involving Janteyl's case. It may be something or it may be nothing but certainly worth checking out. There's no harm in that.

I used to work with a friend who was a magnificent editor. I asked him one day how he could make a story look so good when he had very little video to work with? He said, "Claudia, in the middle of all the trash, there's always a little hidden treasure." Yes, indeed.

We have certainly stumbled upon many hidden treasures along the way.

More to come...in the meantime, if you'd like to check out the story (different case) we just finished in Victoria, Texas, please go to my website: claudiariverotv.com