A 14-year-old boy is missing and considered endangered after he was last seen barefoot near Jimmy Ann Drive and Dunne Avenue in Daytona Beach. Police identified him as Devonta Smith and said he was wearing only a black shirt and black pants when he disappeared, with no shoes on his feet.
The Daytona Beach Police Department is urging anyone with information about Smith's whereabouts to contact law enforcement immediately, according to WKMG ClickOrlando. The department has not detailed what circumstances led investigators to classify Smith as missing and endangered rather than a standard runaway, though under Florida's missing child alert guidelines, that designation is reserved for cases where a person is under 18, officers determine their life or safety could be in danger, and enough descriptive detail exists to share publicly, per ClickOrlando. Notably, a missing child alert differs from an AMBER Alert, which requires evidence of an abduction.
A Neighborhood Near a High School and Busy Corridors
The area around Jimmy Ann Drive and Dunne Avenue sits roughly 0.9 miles from Mainland High School and lies near commercial corridors including Mason Avenue and West International Speedway Boulevard, according to property data reviewed by Apartment List. It's a stretch of the city that mixes residential complexes with heavy foot and vehicle traffic, raising the stakes for investigators trying to retrace a barefoot teenager's steps. Why Smith was without shoes when he vanished remains unclear, and police have not said whether nearby school or residential security cameras have produced any leads.
Under Florida Statute § 937.021, local police receiving a missing child report must immediately notify all on-duty officers and enter the report into state and national missing persons databases within two hours, according to the Florida Senate. State law also bars departments from imposing any waiting period before accepting such a report. The Daytona Beach Police Department's own policy requires that missing persons reports be made in person at headquarters or through 911 dispatch, since they cannot be submitted online, per Crimewatch records of department procedure.
A Recently Lost Tracking Tool
Complicating the search is a recent change to the department's technology. Effective September 1, the Daytona Beach Police Department discontinued its automated license plate reader camera system after a Florida Department of Transportation directive revoked permits for the devices on state rights-of-way, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reported. Those cameras had previously been used by local police to help locate missing and endangered individuals, meaning investigators are now working the case without a tool they've relied on in the past.
Daytona Beach Police do have a recent record of resolving these searches quickly. On July 10, the department issued a missing and endangered alert for three people, including two children ages 5 and 9, and all three were found safe the following day, according to FOX 35 Orlando. The neighborhood near Mainland High School has also seen high-profile searches before: in April 2023, police mobilized a missing and endangered search there for actor Drake Bell, locating him unharmed hours after issuing a public notice, per ClutchPoints.
Part of a Larger Statewide Push
Smith's case comes amid heightened statewide attention to missing children. In late August, Florida law enforcement agencies completed Operation Statewide Shield, a five-day multi-agency initiative that recovered 163 missing children across the state, including 21 in the Orlando regional area, according to footage and reporting shared on Facebook. Nationally, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children supported 32,167 missing child cases in 2025, with endangered runaways making up 92% of reports and roughly 90% of cases resolved successfully, per the organization's own published data. Florida's Missing Endangered Persons Information Clearinghouse, created in 1983 as the first state clearinghouse of its kind in the country, processes more than 25,000 missing child entries into law enforcement databases each year, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
For now, Daytona Beach Police say the priority is locating Devonta Smith and are asking anyone with information about his whereabouts to come forward right away. The case was reported by digital journalist Anthony Talcott under WKMG ClickOrlando's local news coverage.
