A 14-year-old boy has been missing since he walked away from a home in Canton Township on foot, and Stark County deputies say they haven't heard from him since. Xavier Irwin Murphy left a residence in the 4700 block of Cheyenne Street SE on Tuesday, carrying a black backpack and a stainless-steel water bottle, and has not been in contact with anyone since he left.
According to the Stark County Sheriff's Office, Murphy is described as 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighing about 120 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. He has a mole on his left lower cheek and was last seen wearing blue jeans, a dark gray shirt, and black New Balance shoes. Deputies are asking anyone with information on his whereabouts to call (330) 430-3800 and select option 0.
A Township Bordering the City of Canton
Canton Township, where Murphy was last seen, is an unincorporated 25.3-square-mile area in central Stark County directly south of the city of Canton, with a population of 12,477 as of the 2020 Census, according to Wikipedia. Because the township is unincorporated and borders both the city of Canton and several neighboring townships, foot searches in the area often require coordination across jurisdictional lines. Stark County Sheriff's deputies, led by Sheriff George T. Maier, frequently work with neighboring law enforcement agencies across the county's 17 townships and adjacent municipalities, including Plain Township, when a search extends beyond one department's boundaries, as Hoodline has reported.
The sheriff's office also maintains a free mobile app called Stark Sheriff Ohio, which lets residents submit anonymous tips and track public safety alerts as an alternative to calling in directly. Under Ohio Revised Code Section 2901.30, agencies that take a missing child report are required to immediately enter the juvenile's information into the FBI's National Crime Information Center database, a step that gives law enforcement nationwide visibility into the case even before any formal alert is issued.
Why No Amber Alert Has Been Issued
No evidence of an abduction has been cited in connection with Murphy's disappearance, which is why the case has not triggered a full AMBER Alert. Ohio's protocols, overseen by the Ohio Attorney General's Office, instead allow for an Endangered Missing Child Alert to be issued for juveniles under 18 believed to be in potential danger even without signs of a kidnapping. The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation also runs a 24-hour Missing Persons Unit that can be reached at 855-BCI-OHIO to support local agencies with additional investigative resources, alert distribution, and forensic help if the search escalates.
Statewide numbers offer some context for families watching cases like this one unfold. The 2025 Ohio Missing Children Clearinghouse Report, released in May, found that Ohio recorded 15,367 missing children reports last year, a decrease of 1,037 cases from the prior year, according to the Scioto Post. Of those cases, 97.8 percent, or 15,024 children, were safely recovered by year's end. The same report found that runaways accounted for 7,656 of the state's missing child reports, nearly half of all cases, while stranger abductions totaled just two.
For now, investigators are focused on locating Xavier and are urging anyone who has seen him or has information about where he might be to come forward. Tips can be called in directly to the Stark County Sheriff's Office or submitted anonymously through the Stark Sheriff Ohio app.
