South Carolina teen disappears on first day of school after texting friends she was ‘being followed’

 

Marley McKenna Spindler, 16, has been missing since the morning of August 20, 2015, and while the teen may have run away, a text message to friends saying she was being followed is giving her family and authorities cause for alarm.Spindler was last seen by friends at 7:30 a.m. on August 20 as she drove away from a Chick-fil-A restaurant near her home in Surfside Beach, South Carolina.Instead of driving directly to school following breakfast, Marley told friends she would first pick up a 22-year-old man she’d met weeks earlier, identified only as “Jeremy”. Marley was last heard from at 8:42 a.m. when she sent a group text message in which she reportedly claimed she was being followed. Her friends decided she was joking. The teenager never arrived for her first day as a junior at Socastee High School, but her friends decided not to contact authorities in case Marley had decided to skip school for some reason.Police say CCTV footage captured Spindler withdrawing a small amount of money from her bank on the same morning she went missing, but the teen has not been seen since. The man identified as “Jeremy” has been cleared and there’s currently no evidence of foul play.Spindler’s family say all they want is the safe return of their daughter. She’s described as 5’ 8”, 100 pounds, with brown hair and hazel eyes. She was driving a 2002 silver Ford Escape with a South Carolina license plate reading KFI - 776.Authorities ask anyone with information about her disappearance to call the Horry County South Carolina police department.