3/12/22 UPDATE: 14-year-old Nayshaliz Rivera has been found safe, according to Worcester police.
Three teenagers were reported missing Tuesday in Worcester, Massachusetts, and police are still searching for two of them.
Police say 13-year-old Josue Pacheco climbed out of his bedroom window and left his home in the Newbury Street area on foot. On the same day, 14-year-old Nayshaliz Rivera did not return home from South High School.
Pacheco is 5'4 with a thin build and blonde hair. He was last seen wearing black, purple and yellow New Balance sneakers.
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Rivera is 4'9 with a thin build. She and was last seen wearing grey leggings, a grey sweatshirt and a white tank top.
Her father, Luis Rivera, says he heard she might have gone to a basketball game that night, but he went to the school to look for her and did not find her there. He says he's visited the school, talked to students and reviewed phone records.
The worry is taking a toll.
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"A lot of sleepless nights," he said. "Not being able to eat."
He last saw her Tuesday morning as she headed to school.
"Everything was fine," he said. "Didn't see nothing out of the ordinary."
Calls and texts have gone unanswered.
"I want her to know that we love her. That we are not mad. That we just want her home safe," Rivera said. "I just want my baby girl home."
Fourteen-year-old Cyrus Castillo also went missing after climbing out his bedroom window Tuesday, but police said Thursday he had been located and is safe.
Lt. Sean Murtha of the Worcester Police Department says the cases do not appear to be connected, and they don't suspect foul play but they are asking for help finding the missing teens.
"Using social media is very helpful, because we can then enlist the community to be our eyes and ears. A lot of times, they're actually in a place where the adult doesn't know that they're not supposed to be there," Murtha said. "We have to take them all seriously. We never know when one case might be something worse, so we obviously want to get the kids back to their parents as soon as possible."
Rivera says he understands it's a tough age, and his daughter's generation faces additional challenges.
"In this day and age, you have social media, bullying. You have so much pressure on you, and everything you do is underneath, like, a magnifying glass. Every little step, it's pictures, videos, there's everything, and I can't say I can relate to any of that because when I was growing up, I didn't have social media," he said. "The kids nowadays are under so much pressure that I guess this is what it comes down to, but I feel like this is not the way to go. There's other ways. There's opening up and talking to your parents, letting them know what is going on."
Through his own investigation, Rivera learned his daughter may have entered a grey vehicle. His family is offering a $500 reward for information that helps bring her home.
