Search underway for two missing teens after friend found dead

(11/08/06 - KTRK/BACLIFF, TX) (KTRK) -- Deputies and volunteers are working a mystery in Galveston County. Two teenagers missing may not sound that unusual, but in this case, they both disappeared around the same time a third teen did -- a good friend who was found dead.

<!--html1--> The search will continue with dogs and more Equusearch volunteers. There is no real evidence to suggest the teens are in the area that is being searched, but there is a lot of concern, given what happened there only last week.

Just a few yards from a football field, a search is underway for two teens who haven't been seen by their families for 10 days. The search was occurring on the same day funeral services were being held for Terressa Vanegas, 15. Her body was found last week near the same field.

Vanegas had apparently been killed Halloween night after leaving a party. Vanegas and Kimberlee Ramsey, the missing girl, were best friends. Their friends are now frightened by the connection.

<p "I'm very scared," said Sonya Gonzales. "I used to go and I used to walk in Dickinson. I don't do that any more."

Ramsey, 15, has run away from home before. Last month she returned from a camp in Utah for problem adolescents. She disappeared from her Bacliff home two days before Vanegas went missing.

"We think she's still around our area somewhere," said Rodney Ramsey, Kimberlee's father.

She may not be alone. Cody Birdwell, 17, a boy Kimberlee was seeing, left his Bacliff house the same day she was reported missing.

Sgt. Mike Barry with the Galveston County Sheriff's office explained, "The information we have is that they were to meet that night, on (October) 29. He left the house to go meet with her, and that's the last time either one was seen. Neither one of them left with any clothes, no toothbrush, no money. Nothing. Of course, she has a history of running away."

That's what Kimberlee's parents hope -- a sad kind of hope to which they're clinging.

"I'm very concerned about where she is and what could have happened to her that she's not here (at the funeral) to say goodbye to her friend," said Laura Ramsey, Kimberlee's mother.

Anyone with information on the missing teens is asked to call Texas Equusearch or local law enforcement.
<span class=xsmall> (Copyright © 2006, KTRK-TV)</span>

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