Mom of missing teen moves to Atlanta for family support

Janice Sallis said she moved back to Atlanta from Monroe, N.C., at her family’s urging.

Her teenage daughter, Phylicia Barnes, disappeared while visiting a half-sister in northwest Baltimore last month. Sallis went to Baltimore on Dec. 30, two days after Barnes’ disappearance, but then came to Georgia because her family didn’t want her to be alone.

“In times like this they won’t let me stay by myself,” Sallis told the AJC.

Barnes turned 17 last week. She vanished without a trace from her half-sister’s apartment on Dec. 28.

Sallis is a nurse and said she can’t go to work right now. She plans to remain in Georgia “when (Barnes) is returned to me.”

“I have more family support here,” she told the AJC.

Baltimore police at one time had half of its homicide force trying to find Barnes. Authorities from the FBI, the National Center for Missing Children and the Maryland State Police continue to search for her.

“Her case is very unlike anything we’ve seen here,” Baltimore Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.

Baltimore police worked about 360 missing persons’ cases in 2010, and all but four were solved, he said.

About 70 tips have come into the nationwide tip line -- 1-855-223-0033 – but none of those led to anything. Guglielmi said some of the tips came in from out of state and investigators continue to pursue those.

“We’ve checked every hospital, every Dumpster, every homeless shelter, most of the vacant buildings,” he said.

Investigators now are re-interviewing people who last saw Barnes alive and really focusing on the timeline of that day, trying to account for every second as best as they can, Guglielmi said.

“We believe strongly that something terrible happened to Phylicia, and whether she’s in Baltimore, Kansas or Connecticut, we don’t know because we don’t have any physical evidence to guide us,” he said. “We base our findings on evidence, and we don’t really give a lot of credit or ammunition to opinion. Right now it’s all opinion, and we’re not going to put much weight behind that.”

Sallis said she isn’t scared, and she doesn’t stare at the clock and count the minutes that her daughter has been gone. On good days, Sallis said she laughs more and talks on the phone or goes shopping at a thrift store with her sister.

On the bad days, Sallis said she isolates herself, going into a room and closing the door. She grieves, prays and talks to God but doesn’t question why this is happening to her.

“It reminds me that I am in a valley, and God is carrying me, although I don’t realize it,” Sallis told the AJC. “I’ve experienced tragedy before, and I thought it was too hard, but God was carrying me.”

Sallis talks to Baltimore police investigators almost every day. She also talks to the media.

She doesn't talk to Barnes' father, Russell Barnes of Riverdale. Their daughter's disappearance reopened old family wounds. Sallis also is angry and feels betrayed by her daughter's half-sister because she let Barnes drink alcohol and be in "a certain environment that I did not want her around."

“I felt that she was disrespectful to me as a mother, and I didn’t appreciate that,” Sallis said.

Sallis is unapologetically protective of her daughter, calling herself “old-fashioned” in the way that she raised Barnes.

Her daughter is an honor student, ready to graduate from high school a year early and wants to be a psychiatrist – a career choice that is the latest in a list that included “astronomer,” “ob-gyn” and “pediatrician,” Sallis said.

Barnes already was accepted to some colleges. She was focused on attending a school in Maryland.

Sallis said she wasn’t going to let her daughter go to school out of state, at least not right away. Barnes didn’t know that, Sallis said.

“I didn’t think she was ready to leave the state on her own,” Sallis told the AJC.

The Barnes’ side of the family was one that Sallis said she encouraged her daughter to reconnect with three years ago. Sallis said she told Barnes to use Facebook to find her half-sisters and the contact her father.

Sallis said Barnes’ stepfather had raised her since she was 3 years old but that that wasn’t enough.

“I tried to explain to him that ‘although you’ve been in her life, it’s not the same, she wants to know who her biological father is and where she came from,’” Sallis told the AJC.

Barnes’ December visit to Baltimore was the fourth time she had gone to visit her half-sister, Sallis said.

Sallis, whose rules include “children should be home at a certain hour,” said her daughter was probably enjoying her new-found freedom. She also said her daughter is naïve.

“I tell her, ‘baby, you can’t trust every smile that appears in front of you,’” Sallis said. “She’s a ‘people’ person, and she thought everybody was like her. She’s too trusting.”

Sallis said she had an “uncomfortable” feeling around 8 or 9 p.m. the day Barnes disappeared and immediately called her daughter’s cell phone. It went directly to voice mail.

She tried again, and the same thing happened.

Then, Sallis said she called Barnes’ half-sister who said Barnes was missing.

“I said, ‘what do you mean she’s missing? She’s been missing since 1:30, and no one has called me.’”

She has been critical of the Baltimore police’s response.

The first week in a missing-person’s case is critical, Guglielmi said. During the first 24 hours, police officers are doing a character assessment of the person.

“I can’t begin to tell you how many calls this city gets from people who have gone missing,” he said. “There has to be a small window of time to figure out what you’re dealing with.”

That includes trying to make sure, for example, the person didn’t go hang out at a local college for the night, drive off with an acquaintance from Facebook, or head up to Atlantic City to blow off some steam. In those cases, usually the “missing” person comes back.

“After the first day, we immediately started expecting something else,” Guglielmi said. “The day after she missed her flight home, it was full throttle, and the police commissioner said there’s suspected foul play. We’ve been at that some point ever since.”