Indy Mom: “I Don’t Know Where She Is”

INDIANAPOLIS — The mother of a missing 15-year-old Speedway girl is pleading for help as police continue searching for her daughter.

Queenie Smith says she immediately started looking for Jaylena after she disappeared.

“I’ve sent out a search party as soon as I could that morning,” Smith said. “I gave people time if they wanted to come later that day and meet up with me.”

Smith says she has been trying to get the community to share Jaylena’s picture and help bring attention to the case.

“We reached out to a lot of community leaders in regards to posting my daughter’s face, and it didn’t happen until after the news station reported it for them to share her picture.”

Smith says she has provided police with information that could help find her daughter, including access to an old cellphone and social media accounts.

“They have everything. They have an old cell phone of hers. They still had her social media. They have all of it. I’ve given everything to police, everything that I could think of.”

She says she has learned there were things Jaylena had kept from her, including another social media account.

“There was a lot I didn’t find out until later that had been hidden from me,” she said. “One of our rules with social media was that I had to be friends with them. I didn’t even know she had a Snapchat.”

Smith says she keeps thinking about the plans she and her daughter had together.

“I promised her that we were gonna go shopping, and I wanted to buy her a really cute dress for us to go on a fancy date. She always wanted to go to Fogo de Chão, so I have to take her.”

She says she is struggling with not knowing where Jaylena is or whether she is safe.

“I have so many scenarios playing in my brain. I don’t know. I’m hoping she’s just… I don’t know.”

“I don’t know where she is. I don’t know who she could have been with. I don’t know where she’s eating right now. I don’t know where she’s sleeping right now. This is killing me.”

Smith was last seen June 16 between 8:30 and 10:30 a.m. in Speedway. Police describe her as 5 feet 2 inches tall, about 125 pounds. She was last seen wearing a black sweater with graphics, gray shorts and carrying a black backpack.

Anyone with information is asked to call Speedway Police at 317-246-5357.