UPDATE: The girl was located safe in Chicago, her mother said.
A mother said she is concerned about the wellbeing of her 15-year-old daughter, who went missing from their Park City home on Thursday. The girl was last seen in the Des Plaines area on Friday and is possibly with a 21-year-old man, the mother said.
Kayla Gutierrez, 15, was last seen leaving her Park City residence around 5:15 p.m. Thursday, her mother Kristen said.
The girl is described as half Hispanic and white, about 5-foot-6, 130 pounds, with brown hair and dark eyes.
She is of average build and has a piercing on the left side of her nose and two piercings in each ear, her mother said.
The teen was last seen wearing a black tank top with a black hoodie over it, light blue jean shorts and white and grey medium top Nike Air Force 1 shoes.
She was also carrying a small black and silver purse, her mother said.
Kayla told her grandmother Thursday evening that she would walk to a nearby store and be back within 10 minutes, but she never returned home.
An officer with the Park City Police Department confirmed to Lake & McHenry County Scanner that the department is actively working on the missing juvenile case, but could not provide further information due to the ongoing investigation.
Kristen believes her daughter is with a 21-year-old man named Kendal Dampier, who Kristen called “dangerous.”
“He has a record for domestic violence, criminal battery, driving under the influence and damage to property in the past,” Kristen told Lake & McHenry County Scanner.
Court records show Dampier has had several criminal cases within Lake County, with most of the charges allegedly occurring in Waukegan.
In September 2023, Dampier took a plea deal and was sentenced to 12 months of probation in a Waukegan domestic battery case, court records show.
He was ordered to not drive and possess illegal drugs or weapons, among other conditions.
Kayla has been having an ongoing relationship with Dampier for months, her mother said.
The mother, who said she was unaware of the relationship, recently discovered messages from Dampier “saying he’s going to kill himself if she ever stops talking to him.”
The mother said her daughter’s disappearance is unusual and nothing like this has happened before.
“I am most definitely scared for her life,” she said.
Park City Police last pinged the girl’s cell phone location in Des Plaines Friday afternoon, but the exact location was unknown because the radius of the ping was over a mile, the mother said.
Kayla and Dampier were also possibly sighted together at around 5 p.m. Friday at Belleau Lake in Des Plaines.
Dampier was possibly seen with medium-length dreads and Kayla possibly had her hair up in a ponytail, the mother said.
Kristen shared information about her missing daughter on Facebook and asked residents in the Waukegan, Park City and Gurnee areas to keep an eye out.
As of Saturday afternoon, her Facebook posts have been shared nearly 1,000 times.
Lake & McHenry County Scanner has reached out to the Park City Police Department’s command staff for further information on the case.