Wake County sheriff's deputies are searching for 14-year-old Neymar Diaz, who was last seen near his home in south Wake County. The teenager disappeared from the Green Spring Meadows community on North Spring Garden Circle, a residential subdivision in the unincorporated part of the county, and investigators are asking the public for help locating him.
Diaz was last seen wearing a white shirt with grey or navy blue shorts and black Crocs, according to WRAL. He is described as roughly 5 feet 7 inches tall, with black curly hair and brown eyes. Anyone who spots him or has information about his whereabouts is asked to call 911 immediately.
The search is being led by deputies from the Wake County Sheriff's Office, the agency responsible for patrolling and investigating incidents in unincorporated areas of the county under Sheriff Willie Rowe, according to Wake County Government. The department's administrative headquarters sits on South Salisbury Street in Raleigh, though the office directs the public to route any urgent sightings through 911 rather than its records division.
No Waiting Period for Missing Child Reports
North Carolina law enforcement agencies do not require a 24- or 48-hour waiting period before acting on a missing child report — deputies begin working the case immediately, per guidance from the North Carolina Department of Public Safety. That same zero-delay standard extends to national databases: federal guidance from the National Crime Information Center requires that missing juveniles under 18 be entered into nationwide law enforcement systems without any waiting period, according to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, ensuring visibility for police across jurisdictions from the moment a report is filed.
The North Carolina Center for Missing Persons, a state clearinghouse established in 1985, also supports local searches like this one and operates a 24-hour toll-free hotline at 1-800-522-KIDS, per the state public safety department. Statewide, North Carolina agencies report more than 10,000 missing children and adult cases annually to that center, though 2025 figures from the center indicate most juvenile reports involve runaways who return home voluntarily — even though every report still requires full law enforcement intake.
Why an Amber Alert Hasn't Been Issued
No Amber Alert has been issued in Diaz's case. Under North Carolina law, that emergency broadcast system is reserved for children believed to have been criminally abducted and in danger of injury or death — and it explicitly excludes cases suspected to be voluntary runaways, according to the state public safety department. That strict statutory threshold is why general missing-teen searches typically rely on local bulletins, news coverage and community tips phoned in to 911 rather than a wide alert broadcast.
Nationally, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children assisted law enforcement with 32,167 missing child cases in 2025 and reported a 90 percent recovery rate, according to MissingKids.org. It remains unclear whether Wake County investigators suspect foul play or believe Diaz left voluntarily; no further detail on the direction of the investigation has been released.
The search for Diaz comes just days after Hoodline reported on an unrelated multi-agency search using underwater drones at Raleigh's Millbrook Lake for a separate possible missing person case in Wake County. Anyone with information about Neymar Diaz's location is urged to call 911 right away.
