LYNN — A Lynn mother is desperately looking for her 15-year-old daughter.
Amanda Sequeira said that her daughter, Isabella Carter, left home sometime in the early morning of Nov. 27.
“My daughter needs help,” Sequeira said. “It’s not that she’s a teenager that’s missing. She’s a teenager with mental problems that’s missing.”
Sequeira said her daughter has been suffering from mental-health issues since July.
“In four months, she’s been in seven different facilities,” Sequeira said. “They keep releasing her. The issue is, she gets released, she comes home to me, then she runs off.”
At first, Carter would run off to visit a friend in Holyoke.
Sequeira was able to contact the landlord in Holyoke, who would call her whenever he saw Carter at the building.
“She kept getting caught, so she stopped going to Holyoke,” Sequeira said. “The last few times she ran off, I don’t know where she’s going except for the time before this one.”
On Nov. 17, Carter was discharged from a facility in Framingham.
“I brought her home, she had a good weekend, then she ran off on Nov. 21,” Sequeira said, adding that her daughter had run off with a friend from her school, Lynn Classical High School.
Sequeira said that she knew her daughter wanted to spend some time with her girlfriend’s family at Thanksgiving.
“At this point, it was kind of like, what can I do?” Sequeira said. “I just want her to be safe.”
Carter was at her friend’s house on Chestnut Street on Nov. 24, and Sequeira picked her up at the Police Department.
“She cried and said she was sorry,” Sequeira said. “Around 9 p.m. Sunday night (Nov. 26), she was trying to leave again. I confronted her, and she acted like she wasn’t leaving.”
However, Carter was gone by morning, and her mother has not seen her since.
Sequeira became even more concerned about her daughter’s mental-health condition after checking Carter’s diary for potential information to give to the police.
“There were a lot of entries in there that make it really important that we find her and get her the mental-health care that she needs,” Sequeira said. “We’re afraid she may try to harm herself.”
Sequeira said she has been unable to sleep and is constantly looking for information that might lead to her daughter.
On Wednesday night, she put up flyers in her neighborhood and areas where Carter might be.
“I just want her to know that she’s loved,” Sequeira said. “I’m not mad at her. I’m scared for her safety. I just want to know that she’s OK.”
The Police Department is actively searching for Carter.
“This is an active investigation, and if anyone has any information regarding the whereabouts of Isabella Carter, please call 781-595-2000,” Lt. Rick Connick, the department’s public information officer, said.
