The mother of missing Phylicia Barnes is criticizing the response since the initial call for help to police in Baltimore.
Janice Sallis told CNN said pleas for help during the first 48 hours of the case were ignored, though she wouldn't say who was to blame. She made the remarks during an interview with the network news program, which were also reported in a story in the girl's hometown newspaper, the Charlotte Observer.
The mother has been outspoken since Phylicia disappeared from her sister's Northwest Baltimore apartment on the afternoon of Dec. 28, last seen by her sister's boyfriend. She apparently had left to get something to eat. The honors student was visiting Baltimore and hoped to attend Towson University after graduating early from high school.
The case has frustrated Baltimore police, which maintains a hot-line and at one point had half the homicide unit investigating. There hasn't been a single sighting or useful tip in the case, leading police to believe she was abducted and taken out of state.
Efforts by the city police spokesman, Anthony Guglielmi, to take the case national at first went nowhere, prompting him to complain of a double-standard for network news shows dealing with missing children. Since then, several national news shows have devoted space to Phylicia's case.