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Missing Florida girl spotted with coach

Posted at 10:06 AM, Dec 01, 2017
and last updated 2017-12-01 10:06:03-05

Caitlyn Frisina’s parents discovered their 17-year-old daughter was missing from their Florida home Sunday morning. Now, police are tracking Frisina and a 27-year-old soccer coach across multiple states.

On Sunday, Frisina did a factory reset on her cellphone and left it behind. The Columbia County Sheriff’s Office launched a missing person investigation a few hours after she was reported missing.

The search for the teenage girl now spans Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.

Police say the Fort White High School senior is accompanied by her school’s boys’ soccer coach, Rian Rodriguez, 27.

CNN has not heard back from the administration at Fort White High School.

Columbia County Sheriff Mark Hunter said in anews conference on Wednesday that Rodriguez is a Frisina family friend.

“We don’t know that she’s OK,” Hunter said. “She may be in harm’s way.”

Hunter gave additional details about what investigators have discovered so far. The teenager’s debit card was used to withdraw $200 from a gas station ATM in St. Mary’s, Georgia, on Sunday around 1 a.m.

The sheriff said Frisina and Rodriguez were spotted twice later Sunday on surveillance video in different states. They were first seen in a gas station in Saint George, South Carolina. That afternoon they were seen on security footage at a pawn shop in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

A red 2001 Mercury Sable resembling the one Rodriguez drives was also captured on video at a gas station pump in Hardeeville, South Carolina, on Sunday.

The two have not been spotted since that afternoon.

Hunter said his department believes Frisina and Rodriguez are traveling northeast. Investigators are following additional leads along the Eastern Seaboard, he said.

Scarlet Parnell Frisina, the teenager’s mother, sent a pleading message to her daughter at the news conference.

“We love you, and we miss you, and we need to know that you’re safe,” the mother said. “Please call us.”

CNN reached out to Scarlet Frisina, but she said she was “too heartbroken” to further comment on her daughter’s disappearance.