Displaying items by tag: Tallmadge Police

UPDATE: Tallmadge Police say Destiny Pritchett was found safe. Word from the department is that she ran awway last week. 

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The Tallmadge Police Department is asking for the public's help finding missing 17-year-old Destiny Pritchett. 

According to a release, Pritchett was first reported missing on March 13th. The circumstances, though, are not clear at this time. 

Anyone with information is asked to call the Tallmadge Detective Bureau at 330.633.4231. 

Multiple authorities were contacted about an alleged student-teacher relationship, that had been ongoing for three years. Every investigating agency concluded that despite multiple text messages between the two, there wasn't enough evidence to prove such a relationship. 

Now, 36-year-old Laura Lynn Cross, a former English teacher at Buchtel High School, is charged with three counts of sexual battery, stemming from the relationship she carried on with a former student for all those years, and that resulted in her giving birth to the young boy's child. Cross was the boy's eighth grade English teacher, according to records, which is where they first met. 

Reports indicate that the teen boy's mother notified school officials, Akron Police, Tallmadge Police, Summit County Juvenile Prosecutors, and more, and got nowhere. Cross even won partial custody of the teenager, which is why he was able to move into her Tallmadge home back in 2013. A News 5 report indicates that the boy's mother didn't fight the partial custody ruling because she didn't want her son to "hate her." 

Tallmadge Police Chief Ron Williams says there just wasn't enough evidence to bring charges against Cross during the time of the previous investigation. He says both Cross and the boy were uncooperative in their investigation. In response to the News 5 report, Akron Public Schools tells the TV news outlet they launched their own investigation into the alleged affair last Friday. 

Cross is currently in Summit County Jail, being held on $100,000 bond.