Monroe Police are asking the public for help finding 16-year-old Eleana RaeAnn Pieffer, who has been missing since August 11 and may have traveled across the state line into South Carolina. She was last seen wearing a pink hoodie at a residence on Walters Division Road in Monroe, and investigators describe her as 5 feet 3 inches tall and 105 pounds, with brown hair, green eyes, and black-rimmed glasses.
The physical description and last-known location come from the Monroe Police Department, which has been circulating the appeal for public assistance since Tuesday. According to WCNC, investigators believe Pieffer may have traveled into the neighboring Lancaster, South Carolina area, prompting the case to spread beyond North Carolina borders. Monroe and Lancaster sit roughly 20 to 25 miles apart across the state line, part of the broader Charlotte metro region where residents regularly cross between the two states.
Case Now Logged With Federal Authorities
Pieffer's disappearance has also been entered into the National Crime Information Center system under case number NCIC# M719053668, according to a poster from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. That federal registration allows law enforcement agencies anywhere in the country to immediately flag her case during routine checks, which matters given the possibility she has left North Carolina entirely.
On Thursday, the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office reshared the Monroe Police Department's missing person notice on Facebook, helping push the appeal to a wider audience across the Charlotte metro area. The sheriff's office post asks anyone who recognizes Pieffer to contact Monroe Police directly. Monroe dispatch can be reached at 704-282-4700 or 704-289-1591, in addition to standard emergency services, for anyone with information on her location.
How Pieffer's Case Fits Into Statewide Numbers
Her case adds to what has already been a busy year for missing person reports across North Carolina. The North Carolina Center for Missing Persons recorded 7,949 total missing person cases statewide through mid-August, with 464 still active and 7,485 already closed. The center, established in 1985, serves as the state's official clearinghouse for these reports, coordinating with municipal police and out-of-state agencies whenever a case crosses jurisdictional lines, as investigators suspect may have happened with Pieffer's.
Historical figures suggest the odds favor a safe return. A proclamation from the North Carolina Governor's Office noted that state law enforcement recorded 8,756 missing children reports in 2024, and 96 percent of those children were returned safely to their families. Nationally, the numbers tell a similar story: the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children's 2025 Impact Report says the organization assisted with 32,167 missing children cases, 92 percent of which involved runaways, with 90 percent of all cases ultimately resolved.
Those statistics don't answer the immediate questions in Pieffer's case, including the exact circumstances of her departure from the Walters Division Road home and whether South Carolina authorities have deployed search resources on their side of the border. For now, Monroe Police are relying on the public to help close the gap, urging anyone with information to call in as the search stretches into its second week.
