13-Year-Old Vanishes Near Cascade, Heads Toward Highway 24 in Slippers

A 13-year-old identified only as Ellington was reported missing Monday afternoon after last being seen walking toward U.S. Highway 24 near Cascade, Colorado, a small mountain community that sits at the base of Pikes Peak. The child was last spotted around 2:20 p.m. heading eastbound toward the highway, dressed in a gray hoodie with a cross design, white pants, and brown slippers.

The El Paso County Sheriff's Office shared the missing child alert on X, asking the public and several local news outlets, including KKTV, KRDO, KOAA, and FOX21, to help spread the word. According to a post from EPCSheriff, Ellington was last seen in the Cascade area near the Pikes Peak Highway before heading toward the busy highway corridor.

Cascade is an unincorporated mountain community roughly 12 miles west of Colorado Springs in Ute Pass, and it functions as the primary eastern entrance to the Pikes Peak Highway, according to Uncover Colorado. That geography places Ellington's last known route directly along one of the region's busiest and most hazardous stretches of road.

A Dangerous Stretch of Highway

The U.S. Highway 24 corridor through Ute Pass, between Manitou Springs and Cascade, is known for high-speed vehicle traffic, steep canyon walls, and minimal road shoulders, all of which create serious hazards for anyone on foot, per PJAMM Cycling. The intersection of Highway 24 and Fountain Avenue in Cascade, where the search appears to be centered, has previously drawn attention from the Colorado Department of Transportation for vehicle congestion tied to traffic heading toward the Pikes Peak Highway tollgate.

Cascade sits at an elevation of about 7,400 feet, at the foot of terrain that climbs sharply toward Pikes Peak's 14,115-foot summit, according to Turo. That kind of high-altitude terrain can bring rapidly shifting weather even in late summer, adding another layer of risk for a child reported to be wearing slippers and light clothing rather than gear suited for the mountains.

Search Resources and Local Alert Systems

If the search moves into the surrounding backcountry, it would likely draw support from El Paso County Search and Rescue, an all-volunteer nonprofit that operates 24/7 and works under the direction of the El Paso County Sheriff's Office during mountain and wilderness operations. The team is equipped with K-9 units and mountain safety specialists and does not charge those it helps, per its own description of its mission.

El Paso County is one of Colorado's largest jurisdictions, with a population exceeding 720,000 residents. A state budget report from the Colorado Department of Public Safety recorded that the sheriff's office maintained 41 deployable investigators to handle major crimes and missing person cases countywide, underscoring the scale of resources spread across such searches.

Local agencies in the area also rely on the Peak Alerts emergency notification system, which sends geo-targeted text and phone alerts to residents in specific neighborhoods without triggering a statewide broadcast, as KRDO has reported. That kind of localized alert differs from a formal Colorado Bureau of Investigation Missing Child Alert or AMBER Alert, which require evidence that a minor's safety is in immediate jeopardy and that enough descriptive detail exists to support a statewide notification, according to 9News.

Social Media as a First Response Tool

The sheriff's office's decision to post the appeal directly to X reflects a broader shift in how law enforcement handles these situations. Research from Chapman University has found that public safety agencies increasingly lean on real-time social media posts to crowdsource tips in missing person cases, even though direct public engagement with any single post can vary widely.

It is not the first time the Highway 24 corridor west of Colorado Springs has been the backdrop for an urgent search involving a young teenager. In January, local law enforcement and community advocates issued an alert for another 13-year-old last seen near the same highway, a reminder that the rural corridor has repeatedly become a focal point for these searches.

As of Monday evening, no further details had been released about Ellington's condition or whereabouts, and the sheriff's office had not indicated whether the case met the threshold for a formal statewide alert. Anyone with information has been directed to reach out to the El Paso County Sheriff's Office directly.