A 14-year-old boy has been missing from North Philadelphia since Thursday afternoon, and police are asking the public for help finding him. Jesiah Broady was last seen around 2 p.m. on the 1500 block of North Gratz Street before he was later spotted in the area of 21st Street and Cecil B. Moore Avenue, according to the Philadelphia Police Department.
The Philadelphia Police Department's Central Detective Division is leading the search, according to Newport Dispatch. Broady is described as 5 feet 3 inches tall and weighing about 160 pounds, with brown eyes, black hair and a medium complexion. He was last seen wearing a black MLK t-shirt and light grey track pants, along with either white and grey Asics sneakers or Superman Crocs.
Where He Vanished, Steps From Temple's Campus
The stretch of Cecil B. Moore Avenue and North Gratz Street where Broady was last seen sits in North Philadelphia's Cecil B. Moore area, immediately adjacent to Temple University's main campus, an area marked by dense residential student housing and heavy foot traffic, according to Philadelphia YIMBY. The Central Detective Division, which is handling Broady's case, oversees major investigations and missing person cases across the city's 6th, 9th and 22nd Police Districts, operating out of a headquarters at 401 N. 21st Street.
Anyone with information on Broady's whereabouts is asked to call the Central Detective Division at 215-686-3093 or 215-686-3094, or to call 911.
Why Police Moved Immediately
Pennsylvania law bars police agencies from imposing any mandatory waiting period before opening an investigation into a missing child, requiring officers to begin searching as soon as a report comes in regardless of the circumstances, per the Pennsylvania General Assembly. That same state framework requires missing juvenile profiles to be logged immediately into the Commonwealth Law Enforcement Assistance Network and the National Crime Information Center, allowing other jurisdictions to see the case in real time.
Not every missing-child case triggers the same public alert. Under Pennsylvania State Police protocol, a Missing Endangered Person Advisory is issued when someone is believed to be at risk because of health, age or environmental factors, while Amber Alerts are reserved strictly for confirmed child abductions, according to the Pennsylvania State Police. Local departments must request any MEPA activation through state police rather than issuing one on their own.
A Recurring Pattern in North Philadelphia
Broady's disappearance follows a string of missing-youth reports across the city this year. Just days earlier, Hoodline reported that a Logan teen vanished for the second time in weeks, a case handled by Northwest Detectives rather than Central. Back in February, Hoodline also covered the disappearance of 17-year-old Karima Welcome, another case from the 22nd Police District that was investigated by the same Central Detective Division now searching for Broady.
Philadelphia police officials have said the city logs roughly 3,600 missing persons reports each year, averaging about 10 a day, with children accounting for nearly 70 percent of those cases, according to a report relayed by KYW Newsradio. City officials have noted that most missing youth cases are resolved within hours or days, though public appeals through detective divisions remain a key tool for generating tips in dense, high-traffic neighborhoods like the one near Temple's campus.
No additional details about Broady's disappearance have been released, and police have not said whether they believe he left voluntarily or is considered at risk. Anyone with information is urged to contact the Central Detective Division or call 911.
