Father pleads to hear from missing daughter

By GIL BRADY
The Cowboy Times

Filed 12:44 a.m.
Updated 1:21 p.m.

JACKSON, Wyo. (CT) – Following a reported late-night, high-speed car chase last week, the father of a Jackson teen pleaded on Tuesday for his daughter, or anyone with information concerning her whereabouts, to contact him.

Megan Andrea Barlow, 15, of Jackson, went missing nine days ago from her home near Bar B Bar, just north of Jackson, her father, Richard, reported.

In a bulletin released by the Teton County Sheriff’s Office Tuesday, Megan Barlow, born Aug. 4, 1991, is described as 5’6”, 130 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. The bulletin did not include a description of clothing that Megan Barlow was wearing when she vanished.

During a phone interview for Jackson Hole Radio News Tuesday, Richard Barlow said his daughter left home around 11:30 pm and returned around 1:30 am in a maroon Ford F-250 pick-up with dark-tinted windows. The father said his son used a car to chase a truck he believed his daughter was in out of their neighborhood at high speeds before giving up.

“My son saw the vehicle, followed the vehicle. The vehicle then turned around out of our neighborhood and sped back into Jackson doing about 80 miles an hour when my son backed off and didn’t want to chase the vehicle anymore,” Richard Barlow said. “That was the last we saw of Megan. We think that she’s very scared and frightened because she knows that we’re upset with her having left the house. We just want her to at least call in and speak with us and just let us know that she’s okay.”

Barlow said his son gave the truck’s Idaho tag to authorities. Investigators, he said, were interviewing people in Jackson and Teton County, Idaho, regarding Megan’s whereabouts.

“At this time we believe that it’s a runaway,” the father told JH Radio News’ DeeDee Dudley. As time passed, however, Barlow said his daughter’s disappearance became a much more serious matter.

“We don’t believe that Megan, at the age of fifteen, would remain away for any period of time,” he said. “We thought that she might have run away initially, scared, because she had been seen coming back in late at night when she shouldn’t have been out. But, now it’s been over a week and we think that now it may be a little more serious.”

The father said that if Megan contacted him he would be patient and understanding, stressing that his biggest concern was the welfare of his daughter.

“I would ask Megan that she simply call in. Let us know she’s okay. We’ll be willing to talk to her," Richard Barlow said. "We’ll be willing to listen to what she has to say. If she doesn’t want to speak to us, she can certainly call Choral. That’s a very close friend of hers. We just want to hear from her that she’s okay.”

The father also requested that any of his daughter’s friends who have any information on Megan Barlow’s whereabouts notify him immediately, so that her family can know whether she’s okay or needs help.

“That’s what’s very important. The only thing that’s important to us at this particular point,” he said.

As previously reported by The Jackson Hole News & Guide, the missing girl's mother said that Megan's cell phone had been reactivated. Investigators said earlier this week that Megan had not been using her cell phone since its reactivation.

Anyone with information regarding Megan Barlow’s whereabouts is urged to call (307) 733-2331 or contact the Teton County Sheriff’s Office.

Photo Caption & Credit: "A maroon Ford F-250" courtsey of C.K.'s Auto, Inc. ; "Megan Andrea Barlow" courtsey of T.C.S.O.