Two teenagers from Long Beach who are believed to have runaway from their homes late last year, Seven West and Stephanie Leon, are still missing, according to the Long Beach Police Department.
Seven West, 17, was last seen on Nov. 26, 2020. West is described as a Black teenager with brown hair and brown eyes, standing at 6’5″ and weighing 230 pounds. It is unknown what West was wearing when he disappeared.
On Dec. 4, 2020, 17-year-old Stephanie Leon went missing in Long Beach. Leon is described as Latina, with brown eyes and black hair, standing at 5’4″ tall and weighing 160 pounds. She was last seen wearing a green shirt, blue jeans and black and white Nike shoes.
Out of the six minors from Long Beach listed in the Missing Persons 2020 Quarterly Bulletin for October to December by the California Department of Justice, Leon and West are the only ones who haven’t been found yet, as confirmed by the Long Beach Police Department on Monday, Feb. 8.
According to data by the FBI, in 2019 the majority of people reported missing in the United States were under the age of 18. A total of 609,275 individuals went missing, 398,250 of which were juveniles under the age of 18.
There is an average of 20,000 active missing person cases in California, according to the State of California Department of Justice.
In 2020, a total of 65,202 children went missing in California. The vast majority of them, 62,008, were reported as being runaways, 1,588 were abducted by a parent or other family member, 1,138 disappeared under unknown circumstances, 251 went missing under suspicious circumstances, 180 went missing after getting lost, 30 were abducted by strangers and 7 went missing after catastrophes such as fires, floods, boat crashes, etc.
It is not unheard of for Long Beach residents to disappear never to be seen again. In 1999, 16-year-old Erika Limon disappeared from outside her family’s apartment in North Long Beach and was never found. She would be 37 years old now.
It is important that the community remain vigilant when people go missing. Those who may have information about the location of Seven West and Stephanie Leon are asked to please call LBPD at (562) 570-7201.
