Mother seeks community help to find missing daughter

"We love you and we want you to come home," is the message Jody Kinser wants her 15-year-old daughter Katlin to hear. "Let's try to work through this."\nJody's last memory of Katlin is about 11:30 p.m. the night of July 18, when she said her daughter was listening to music in her room. But by 7 a.m. the next morning, she discovered Katlin was gone.\n"Her radio was still blaring and she had left a note on her bed," Jody Kinser said. "We looked for her for about two hours and then we called the Sheriff's Department ... This is the first time she has ever run away."\nJody said she moved to Bloomington from Green County about 18 months ago, and since that time she has engaged in a lot of "secret" things behind her back -- including a recent cigarette and possibly marijuana smoking habit, conversing with adult men through her MySpace internet account and lingering in the shadows of community locales like Peoples Park. Jody said her daughter's erratic behavior escalated to a recent unannounced "walkout" by Katlin, in which she "slipped" back into the house hours later to avoid detection. \nFor that provocation and more, Jody said she grounded her daughter "indefinitely" until she proved her responsible intentions, which might have led to Katlin's recent disappearance. She has not contacted any family or friends since last Tuesday night.\nKatlin is described as a 5-foot-2 to 5-foot-3, 120 to 130 pound, female, with green/hazel eyes, auburn-colored wavy hair of shoulder-length, wearing black Nike tennis shoes with hot-pink swooshes on the sides. She has double-pierced ears with a small bead in the cartilage of her left ear. She was last seen on Gifford Road, although she enjoys spending time at Peoples Park and Highland Village Park among other downtown and Bloomington locations.\nJody said her daughter possesses a state identification card and she took at least three pairs of pants, two pairs of shoes and her bikini with her before she left -- black skin-tight pants, black capri pants, grey capri pants and black high-heeled dress shoes with thin straps in addition to the black Nike tennis shoes with hot pink swooshes. \n"Her brothers and I love her and we want her to come home," she said.\nJody said part of her daughter's responsibilities around the house included the care of her younger siblings, who also miss her dearly. She said she has passed out "missing" flyers throughout town, although the few possible leads reported back have led her no closer to finding her daughter.\nKatlin's friend and Bloomington resident Melissa Cliff, who has worked with Jody from day one of her daughter's disappearance, said she has lost her appetite and many hours of sleep worrying about Katlin's safety. While Katlin's mother has worked on making signs and passing out flyers throughout the neighbor, Cliff says she has called anyone and everyone who knows Katlin, might know where Katlin is hiding or who might care about Katlin's health and welfare.\n"We met in the fourth grade and we became good friends in fifth grade. Since she changed schools her behavior became worse -- she had more of an attitude," Cliff said. "I've been freaked out trying to find her -- I've had no sleep, nothing to eat and a pretty bad temper. I've been really stressed out."\nMelissa said her friend was fond of hanging out around Kirkwood Avenue and that she was known to spend time with college-aged men in the area. \nIf any community member has any information about the whereabouts of Katlin Kinser, her mother and friend ask you to please contact the Monroe County Sheriff Department at 812-349-2780 or Jody Kinser at 812-825-2335.\nJody said she believes her daughter is hiding-out during the day and moving around at night to avoid detection, and Katlin is known to misrepresent herself as being 18 years of age or older because she is a "compulsive liar."\n"I love my daughter and I just wish she could let somebody know she is OK," she said. "In her letter she said she was 'basically a failure at being a daughter and a sister' and that if she left we would 'realize she tried to be good.' She said she wanted to 'go out and make it on her own."