Rochester, N.Y. - Seventeen-year-old Larie Butler is a good student, according to her family. She attends East High and is part of the ROTC program.
She hopes to be a nurse someday.
Larie went missing Saturday. Police say Larie might have been in the area of East Main Street and Ohio Street around 6 p.m. that night.
Police also said that she was last seen near East High School around 10 p.m. Saturday.
She was wearing a sweatshirt with a white hood, jeans, grey and pink sneakers, and gold earrings.
Rochester Police asked for the media's help to find Larie. A statewide alert has also been issued.
Larie's uncle tells us "she's a good kid. It's not like her to go off and not try to contact her family."
The family is understandably upset and scared.
Though we in the media would like to help find missing persons, there's only so much we can do.
We can put their picture out there on television, the web and in newspapers.
We can share information about where they were last seen and if we have the details, who they were with.
But, sometimes our efforts are met with resistance from the very people who ask for our help.
In this case, Rochester Police sent out a email asking us to get Larie's picture out there and ask for the public's help to locate her.
But when we turned to the family to offer a more personal story about Larie, we were shut down.
Larie's uncle and cousin wanted to talk to us. But told us police said: "don't say anything to the media."
That's frustrating. I know there are probably concerns that releasing certain information about Larie might possibly compromise the investigation.
That's not something any reponsible journalist would want to do.
But I think this family wanted and needed to be heard. They wanted to appeal to Larie or anyone who may have seen her, to come forward and help return her to her parents.
It's heartbreaking to see parents dealing with a missing child. Of course, they fear the worst. Any of us would.
But when we are asked to help and then prevented from being able to do much to help, it is frustrating for us.
I just hope Larie finds her way home to her family soon. That's is what is most important here.
