A 17-year-old Fayetteville girl has not been seen in two weeks, and the Fayette County Sheriff's Office is now asking the public for help finding her. Gabrielle Rice was last seen near her home on Walden Way on September 14, and investigators believe she may be a runaway.
The sheriff's office asked for the public's assistance locating Rice, according to Atlanta News First. Rice is described as 5 feet 3 inches tall and weighing about 145 pounds. She was last seen wearing a pink top, a black jacket, pants, white socks and sandals.
Walden Way is near Rice's home in Fayetteville, and it is the last known location where she was seen.
Investigators Lean Toward Runaway Classification
Investigators believe the missing girl may be a runaway, per the sheriff's office. That preliminary assessment lines up with national trends: 92 percent of the 32,167 missing child cases the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children assisted with in 2025 involved runaway youth, according to statistics from MissingKids.org.
Rice's age also fits a broader pattern among reported runaways. Roughly 74 percent of all endangered runaway children reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children are between 15 and 17 years old, per compiled data from The Missing Child Project.
How Georgia Law Handles Missing Juvenile Reports
Once a missing child report is filed in Georgia, state law requires local law enforcement to notify all on-duty officers, alert police departments in adjoining jurisdictions, and transmit the report to the state's Missing Children Information Center, according to Justia Law.
The Georgia Office of the Child Advocate discusses DFCS reporting children missing from foster care to law enforcement for entry into the FBI's National Crime Information Center database.
Recovery Odds and What Comes Next
National figures suggest most missing juvenile cases end with the child found. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children reported a 90 percent overall recovery rate for missing child cases in 2025, resolving 29,013 out of 32,167 cases through law enforcement and community collaboration, per MissingKids.org.
The Fayette County Sheriff's Office, headquartered at 155 Johnson Avenue in Fayetteville under Sheriff Barry H. Babb, is leading the search, according to the Fayette County Sheriff's Office.
Anyone with information on Rice's whereabouts is asked to call 911 or the Fayette County Sheriff's Office at 770-461-6353. Tips can also be emailed to Det. Spicer at [email protected], or called in directly at 770-716-4755.
