Crime & Safety

Missing Teen Sierra LaMar Spotted at Watsonville Fruit Stand?

A woman reported seeing someone who resembled the Morgan Hill girl on Sunday.

There was a possible sighting of a missing Morgan Hill teenager at a popular Watsonville fruit stand on Sunday, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office reproted.

A woman called 911 around 4:06 p.m. after she believed she saw Sierra LaMar hitchhiking in front of at 37 Holohan Rd., according to sheriff's Sgt. Steve Carney.

The girl was wearing black clothes, a black hat and had a backpack, Carney said. She got in to a black pickup driven by a white man.

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However, there has been no confirmation that the sighting was Sierra.

Sierra, a high school cheerleader, has been missing since March 16, when she vanished on the way to school. Police found her purse and neatly folded clothes near Laguna and Santa Teresa in Morgan Hill, about two miles from the girl's home, a week ago.

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The search for Sierra had not stretched into Santa Cruz County until Sunday.

“That was the first I heard of anything over here," Carney said.

Deputies checked the area for Sierra and the pickup, but did not find any leads. The fruit stand didn't have video surveillance, but the gas station across the street did. Deputies will follow up with the Quick Stop staff to get that tape, Carney said.

Authorities in Santa Clara County, where Sierra is from, are handling the investigation. Carney said Santa Cruz deputies are working with them.

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