CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW): UPDATE at 10:03am, 8/30/24: The AWARE Foundation reports Abigail has been safely found. No other information is available.

ORIGINAL:

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children alongside the Howell County Sherriff’s office in southern Missouri are seeking any information on 17-year-old Abigail Lawless of West Plains, Missouri.  Officials say Lawless vanished from her family home in the middle of the night of August 17th, leaving a note behind that said she thought she would be better off living on her own.  Missouri State Highway Patrol said Lawless may be headed to Virginia accompanying someone she met online.    

The AWARE Foundation in Virginia has been in touch with the family, and the girl’s father tells CvilleRightNow they found a package that a man might have sent to her from Charlottsville. There’s also someone who’s reported a possible sighting of Abby in Rives Park near Belmont and Woolen Mills.

 Lawless is 17, with brown hair and brown eyes.  She is 5’9”,162 pounds, and is on the autism spectrum, though she is highly functioning.  Lawless is also legally blind without her glasses.   

 If you have any information on Abigail’s disappearance, if you believe you may have seen her, please contact the National Center for Missing & Exploited children at 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678) or the Howell County (Missouri) Sheriff’s at 1-417-256-2544. 

Courtesy of The AWARE Foundation of Virginia, local nonprofit organization.

National Center for Missing & Exploited Children Missing Poster HERE—Have you seen this child? Abigail Katherine Lawless (missingkids.org)