According to family, Lateche Norris, 20, traveled from Indiana to California to be with boyfriend Joseph “Joey” Smith soon before she went missing. After a month of being missing, she was located safe in California. Investigators met with Lateche Norris in person on Saturday and confirmed she is safe, according to the San Diego Police Department. Who are Lateche Norris parents? Scroll down to know everything about Lateche Norris found and case.
Lateche Norris Found; A girl who had been missing for nearly a month has been found safe.
According to California police, a 20-year-old woman whose family had not heard from her in nearly a month is safe. On Saturday, San Diego Police Department investigators spoke with Lateche Norris in person and confirmed that she was safe and had not been a victim of a crime. Norris expressed gratitude to the public for their concern and asked for privacy, according to police.
Her mother, Cheryl Walker, told Dateline last month that she never went more than a couple of days without speaking to her daughter and became worried after Norris did not call back following an argument with her boyfriend.
Her family reported her missing on November 9th, according to police.
Who is Lateche Norris’ boyfriend Joseph Smith ?
Smith, 25, worked as a construction worker for a contractor who paid for the couple’s apartment and supplied them with a work truck. Neighbors began to complain about the shouting and fighting that occurred inside the couple’s apartment shortly after they moved there. Norris and Smith finally left as a result of the complaints.
Norris and Smith shared an apartment building on Riviera Street in Santa Cruz, California, during the summer of this year. Smith has brown hair and hazel eyes, stands at 6 feet tall and weighs about 185 pounds. After going to San Diego to see her boyfriend, a 20-year-old Indiana girl is still missing nearly a month later. Lateche Norris travelled to see Joseph “Joey” Smith on Nov. 1 and has not spoken with her mother, Cheryl Walker, since a phone call four days later.
Norris told her mother in the call, which came from an unknown number, that she and Smith had fought “for hours” the night before.
Lateche Norris missing; when was she last seen?
A 20-year-old Indiana woman who went missing in early November in San Diego has been found safe. Investigators met with Lateche Norris on Saturday and confirmed she was safe, according to the San Diego Police Department. Norris was not a victim of any crime, according to detectives. Norris was last seen at a 7-Eleven in San Diego’s East Village neighborhood on November 4.
On November 5, Norris’ mother, Cheryll Walker said Norris called her in distress and said she got into an argument with her boyfriend the night before. Norris’ family reported her missing on November 9.
The San Diego Police Department released a surveillance video showing Norris and Smith going through a 7-Eleven near Petco Park the night before Norris went missing on December 2. Norris is dressed in a black hooded sweatshirt over a navy T-shirt, khaki slacks, black skater shoes with white trim, and a black-and-white checkered backpack in the videos. She has dark hair and brown eyes and stands 5-foot-8 and weighs 160 pounds. According to investigators, she goes by the name “Tesha.”
Smith, 25, is also seen in the films wearing a long-sleeve Nike T-shirt with the swoosh insignia near the front neckline and an unnamed logo under it, according to authorities. He was dressed in dark pants and wore the same skater-style shoes as Norris, as well as carrying a backpack.
Who are Lateche Norris parents? Family
Her mother, Cheryl Walker, and father, Walter Omega Cullum, are her parents. Lateche Norris, 20, was found safe after being gone for a month, according to her father, Walter Omega Cullum. Norris’ mother, Cheryl Walker, and her boyfriend, Joseph Smith, have been found, according to a statement from A Voice for the Voiceless, an organization that fights for missing persons.
“Lateche Norris and Joey Smith have been located and are SAFE. Cheryl, Lateche’s mom has made physical contact with the two of them here in California. Thank you for everyone’s concern and assistance in finding Teche,” reads the statement, which was shared by Walker. “Because of you, a mother has been reunited with her mini-me.”
The family recently established a GoFundMe campaign to help pay for the costs of searching for Norris.Norris’ disappearance already has generated national attention. It also caught the eye of Joseph Petito, the father of slain New York native Gabby Petito.
Joseph Petito tweeted about Norris, saying, “Please remember her face and his and share.”
Twitter, please help find #LatecheNorris she was last seen on 11/5 using a strangers phone at 222 Park Blvd in San Diego. Please remember her face and his and share. Please we need your help to bring her home safely. #FINDLATECHE #MissingPerson #TogetherWeCan #GabbyPetito pic.twitter.com/J1J7s91cr4
— joseph petito (@josephpetito) November 30, 2021
“Please we need your help to bring her home safely,” Petito said.
But not all the attention has been positive. In an appearance on NewsNation’s “Banfield” on Wednesday, Walker said the family has been receiving ransom calls and texts that she believes to be fake on her personal cell phone.
“They’ll demand $7,000, $10,000, $2,000 … different amounts,” Walker was quoted as saying. “You can kind of tell the way it’s worded that it’s not legitimate.”
Anyone with information on Norris’ whereabouts is encouraged to contact San Diego police at 619-531-2000 and reference Case No. 21-501043.
Lateche’s final call to her mother led her mother to be concerned.
Walker says her daughter called her from a stranger’s phone on November 1 asking whether she had heard from Smith. Walker had not done so. She said she’d call back the next day, but she didn’t. Since then, family and friends have been unable to reach Norris or Smith.
“I was very worried,” Walker says. “I allowed her a bit of time and now I regret that. I waited another four days before I called the police department.”
