Relatives Hold Our Hope for Missing Teen
Chocolic
By Nicole Fuller, Globe Correspondent, 7/16/2003
With each passing day, Dorothy McMorrow wonders where her 16-year-old
granddaughter might have gone. Along with her husband, Richard, McMorrow of
Bourne has scoured Boston neighborhoods distributing missing person fliers
with Krystle's face.
McMorrow tries to avoid watching television. She said there's too much bad
news.
But last night she made an exception to watch ''Larry King Live'' as her
granddaughter's photo was broadcast after the National Center for Missing
and Exploited Children championed her case.
Krystle J. McMorrow disappeared from the Southwest Corridor Park at Green
and Lamartine streets in Jamaica Plain at about 2 p.m. on May 17.
Her grandmother said Krystal was on a walk with staff and other patients
from Arbour Hospital, a psychiatric facility, where she had lived since
late April.
Krystle was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder when she was 5.
She moved in with her grandparents when she was 7, after her mother, who
was battling mental illness, was unable to care for her and her older
sister, McMorrow said. The teenager has also battled depression and eating
disorders.
''When she came to live with us, she sort of blossomed,'' McMorrow said.
Boston police are treating Krystle's disappearance as a runaway.
''Unfortunately with runaways it's kind of tough,'' said Sergeant Detective
Darrin Greeley. ''Sometimes kids don't want to be found. It's a
heartbreaker, but we deal with it all the time.''
McMorrow said her granddaughter had run away once before for just a few
hours from another placement. She came back herself. But McMorrow said she
can't imagine the shy and quiet teenager navigating Boston's streets.
''All this time I'm thinking she just walked away, but I'm beginning to
think maybe she was taken,'' McMorrow said. ''She's very kind of withdrawn.
I just don't see her having all the kind of skills to survive on the
streets.'' Krystle, who is 5-foot-8 and about 125 pounds, had cornrowed her
brown shoulder-length hair just days before she disappeared. She was last
seen wearing a black hooded sweatshirt with baggy navy blue pants, with a
red patch on one of the knees, McMorrow said.
In the meantime, McMorrow hopes that the national exposure will help her
find Krystle.''I think someday when she gets it all together, she'll be
someone who will really make a difference,'' McMorrow said. ''We've just
got to help her get it all together.''
This story ran on page B3 of the Boston Globe on 7/16/2003.
Š Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.
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