Developmentally Disabled Texas Girl, 14, May Be With 21-Year-Old Soldier

Aug. 18, 2011 — -- An Amber Alert has been issued for a developmentally disabled 14-year-old Texas girl who is believed to be with a 21-year-old soldier headed to Colorado.

Andrea Fox, of Timpson, Texas, who has the mental capacity of someone much younger, may be en route to Colorado with James Martin, the older brother of one of her friends and an Army soldier based at Fort Carson.

Fox was reported missing Aug. 16 by her grandmother, whom she was visiting in League City, near Houston. The girl wrote a note saying she was going to New York and would be back before school started on Tuesday, according to Sgt. John Jordan of the League City Police Department. She instructed her grandmother not to look for her, Jordan said.

Police said Fox was last seen on Tuesday morning with Martin and that text messages between the two led detectives to believe that Fox may be traveling with Martin to Colorado, where he is scheduled to report for duty by Friday morning.

Fox's mother, Shanna Love, told ABCNews.com that she last heard from her daughter Monday night, as the girl was getting ready for bed at her grandmother's house. Fox texted her mother "Good night, I love you," around 10 p.m., Love said.

According to Love, cell phone records show that Martin was also texting Fox that night, until around midnight.

Amber Alert for Andrea Fox

Love said that Martin left his family home in Timpson, Texas, around 6 p.m., telling family members that he was leaving to go back to Fort Collins, but notified his family around 11 p.m. that he was in Houston and very close to League City.

"This is not your average teen. This is the body of a 14- or 16-year-old girl with the mentality of a 10-year-old child," Love said. "She is very naive. She loves everybody, and everybody loves her. [To her] the world is a big place of love and Jesus. She's a good kid."

Love said that before two days ago, she had never heard of James Martin. Fox had been an acquaintance of Martin's younger sister, and Love had unlocked the girl's phone number as one that Fox was allowed to dial on her cell phone. That number was then used by Martin to contact Fox, Love said.

"I would never expect this child to run away," Love said. "If she is locked out of the house, she doesn't go next door to the neighbor's, she'll wait on the steps till someone comes home. She calls before she makes food, before she walks outside."

League City police notified the state police's Amber Alert department, which determined that because Fox's mental capacity was that of someone younger than 14, and that she may be traveling with someone unrelated to her who was more than three years older than she was, she was at risk for serious danger.

"Certainly when you have someone who is young and is traveling with someone older, there is always a concern that they could be in danger of serious bodily harm, sexual assault or even death," said Tela Mange, spokeswoman for the Texas state police.

Notification was sent to all law enforcement agencies in addition to electronic highway billboards on highways throughout Texas. Mange said they also shared the information with other states, who could choose to display the information on their own billboards.

The FBI is assisting in the investigation.