Chesterfield County Teen Vanishes Again Weeks After First Runaway Alert

A 16-year-old girl has gone missing from Chesterfield County for the second time this month, last seen wearing a black shirt with smiley faces on the back, blue jeans and black shoes near a small grocery store in the rural town of Jefferson, South Carolina. Yazmine Melton was reported missing Tuesday, with the last confirmed sighting placing her at McCormick's Grocery & Grill on Kirkley Road.

The Chesterfield County Sheriff's Office is asking anyone with information about Melton's whereabouts to come forward, describing her disappearance as a runaway case in a public alert posted to Facebook. The sheriff's office is urging residents to share the post widely to help bring her home safely, and tips can be submitted anonymously.

This is not the first time deputies have sought the public's help finding Melton this month. Less than three weeks earlier, on August 4, the sheriff's office issued another missing juvenile alert for Melton after she was reported missing from the Tadlock Road area of Pageland, South Carolina, where she was last seen wearing a red shirt and black pants, according to a post shared on Facebook.

Two Small Towns Along the Same Rural Highway

The geography linking both disappearances is notable in a county built around long stretches of farmland and small-town main streets. McCormick's Grocery & Grill in Jefferson sits roughly nine miles south of Pageland along SC Highway 151, a corridor connecting the two rural communities where Melton was reported missing, according to travel data compiled by Expedia. Jefferson itself is a tiny municipality of just 788 residents as of 2024 Census figures, per the Pee Dee Regional Council of Governments, while Chesterfield County as a whole spans nearly 800 square miles along the North Carolina border with an estimated population of about 44,740 residents, according to USAFacts.

It remains unclear whether Melton was located safely after the August 4 report before this second disappearance, or whether investigators believe she has stayed within the Pageland-Jefferson corridor or traveled farther from the area. Those details had not been addressed in the sheriff's office's public statements as of Tuesday's alert.

No Waiting Period for Missing Children Under State Law

South Carolina law bars police and sheriff's departments from enforcing any waiting period before accepting and investigating reports of missing or runaway children, a legislative standard aimed at countering the common myth that families must wait 24 hours to file a report. That mandate helps explain why Chesterfield County deputies moved quickly to post public appeals and enter Melton's information into law enforcement databases without delay.

Statewide, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division maintains the state's official Missing Persons Information Center, which coordinates entries into the National Crime Information Center and supports local sheriff's offices on juvenile runaway cases that cross county lines. South Carolina typically has between 700 and 800 active missing person cases at any given time, with thousands filed each year and the vast majority resolved within 24 to 48 hours, according to statewide data shared on Facebook in December.

Runaways Make Up Nearly All Missing Child Cases Nationally

Melton's case fits a pattern seen across the country. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children's 2025 Impact Report, released in May, found that 92 percent of the 32,167 missing child cases the organization assisted with nationwide last year involved runaway juveniles. NCMEC treats every runaway report as high-risk given the potential for exploitation or harm.

The same report found reason for optimism: 29,013 of those 32,167 cases, or 90 percent, were resolved safely during 2025, according to MissingKids.org. Rapid community notifications, like the alert issued by Chesterfield County deputies, are cited as a critical factor in locating missing youth safely.

Anyone with information about Melton's location is asked to contact the Chesterfield County Sheriff's Office at 843-623-2101, call the non-emergency line at 843-623-6838, or dial 911. Tips can also be submitted anonymously.