Lashaya Stine

Status:

Open

Jurisdiction:

Aurora Police Department (CO)

Missing From:

Aurora, CO

Summary:

Lashaya Stine was 16 years old when she was last seen in Aurora, Colorado on July 15, 2016. Born February 8, 2000, she was an honor-roll student at George Washington High School with plans to study nursing. She left her home around 2 a.m. on July 15 and was scheduled for a job interview the next day but never arrived. Her family and friends have not heard from her since her disappearance.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Disappearance:

On July 14, 2016, Stine was at home spending a quiet night watching movies with her family, but sometime around 2:00 a.m. on July 15, Stine snuck out of her home and never returned. In the early morning hours, she heard her younger brothers making noise in their bedroom, went to tell them to sleep, closed the door, but did not return to her own room. Instead, she left the house and vanished without a trace. The last sighting of her was on a surveillance camera, walking near a bus stop in the 1600 block of north Peoria Street at 2:23 a.m. Lashaya left behind her clothes, wallet, money, phone charger and other belongings. She has no history of running away from home or getting into trouble, and she disappeared the day before a job interview. As the police began their investigation, they learned from Stine's close friends and family that she had an ex-boyfriend that she planned to meet up with the morning she went missing. Authorities were able to track down the ex-boyfriend, who confirmed that he met Stine at the nearby middle school in the early morning of July 15.

Additional Details:

According to police, the Aurora Police Department did not begin actively investigating Lashaya Stine's disappearance until around July 24, 2016, when Police Chief Nick Metz returned from vacation and began an exhaustive campaign to find the missing teen. The family contacted the police, who initially treated the case as that of a runaway. It was almost a week later, when the police chief who had been away on vacation returned and took a closer look. The last credible tip about Lashaya came a couple of years ago when someone said they spotted her at a hotel on East Colfax. But nothing ever came of it and the tip line has been quiet ever since. In November 2020, the FBI went to a house on Lansing Street in Aurora and searched for three days but found nothing. During the investigation at 2200 Lansing Street, authorities found some evidence and called in Aurora Fire and Rescue to help remove and process concrete pieces from the basement. Lashaya's family believes she was abducted by sex traffickers. There have been sightings of her reported in the Colfax Avenue area of Aurora; witnesses stated that the girl resembling Lashaya was being kept drugged and was forced into sex work. She may have also been seen in the Kansas City, Missouri area, and in the states of Kansas, New Mexico and Arizona. Stine's mother stated she has a stack of college applications that came in for Lashaya and still has them. Stine would now be 25 years old.

Case Last Updated:

Aug 30, 2026