EXCLUSIVE: Surveillance video shows Janteyl Johnson, then 15, buying candy an hour before she disappeared in 2010

UPDATE: Investigators believe Janteyl Johnson might be in San Antonio, Texas.

The security footage from what used to be a PathMark grocery store in Newark, Delaware, shows Janteyl Johnson,15, walking in alone. 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.

Janteyl, who was five months pregnant, pays at a self-checkout register. She exits the store at 12:31 p.m. and is talking on her cell phone. At one point, she stops to scratch her leg and then continues walking home. The two-and-a-half-minute clip is the last confirmed sighting of the teen. Janteyl vanished an hour later and has not been seen or heard from 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. 

"I can tell you that it's not normal what happened to her," said Detective Roberto Herrera in an exclusive interview.

​Herrera, a 19-year-veteran of the New Castle County Police Department, prioritized Janteyl's case when he took over the missing persons division in 2018. 

"She was 15. She was pregnant, five months pregnant, so it’s a case that catches anyone’s attention right away.”

​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. 

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. 

I covered Janteyl's disappearance in 2010 for the outlet I used to work for. I interviewed her mother twice, but because investigators classified Janteyl as a runaway, my editors showed little interest in continuing coverage of the case. ​While some local papers in Delaware briefly mentioned Janteyl, as far as extensive media coverage goes, her case got lost over the years.

The investigation

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. 

Herrera said everyone Janteyl spoke to the day she vanished is a person of interest but stopped short of naming a suspect. 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.

"Like any other missing person, it's going to take somebody coming forward to provide us with more information. I’m hoping that we can get more with time and we can solve this to give some peace of mind to the family.”

If you have information about Janteyl's case call, New Castle County PD 1-302-395-2784​ or 1-800-THE LOST