Imperial Valley Press

Police south of US on lookout for missing Tennessee teen

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Authoritie­s asked law enforcemen­t in Mexico and Central America to be on the lookout for a 15-year-old girl who disappeare­d with her teacher two weeks ago, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigat­ion said Monday.

The agency’s request was made as a precaution only, and there have been no sightings south of the U.S. border of either Elizabeth Thomas or her 50-year-old teacher, Tad Cummins. The pair has been romantical­ly linked.

The Tennessee agency got a tip last week that the teacher’s car may have been spotted in Corpus Christi, Texas, but police there were not able to confirm it. The pair’s disappeara­nce came after Cummins was investigat­ed by the school system when another student reported seeing the married teacher kiss the girl at the Culleoka Unit School. Culleoka is a community about 60 miles south of Nashville near the Alabama state line.

Maury County District Attorney Brent Cooper tells WAAY-TV that investigat­ors have discovered the pair had a “romantic interest” and believe they communicat­ed in secret by writing draft emails to each other. Cooper said one person would save the email as a draft on Cummins’ school account, and the other person would read the message, delete it and write another note as a draft.

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