A 17-year-old Oklahoma City girl has been missing for five days, and state troopers have issued an endangered missing advisory to help track her down. Rhylin Carter was last seen around 3 p.m. last Thursday in Oklahoma City, and authorities say they are actively searching for her.
The advisory was issued by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol on behalf of the Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office, according to News 9. Carter is described as 5 feet 3 inches tall and about 150 pounds, with brown hair and green eyes. The station's report notes she has several distinguishing tattoos: a spider on her upper right leg, a cross on her upper left leg, the word blessed on her left forearm, and the word crybaby on her right knee.
Police are asking anyone with information about Carter's whereabouts to come forward. Community members can reach the Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office at its headquarters on NE 36th Street in Oklahoma City, by calling 405-713-1000, or through the agency's online tip submission portal, per the same account.
Why This Isn't Being Called an AMBER Alert
Carter's case was handled as an endangered missing advisory rather than an AMBER Alert, a distinction rooted in Oklahoma Department of Public Safety guidelines. Those rules call for a Missing/Endangered Juvenile Alert when a child 17 or younger is believed to be in danger but the case does not meet the state's strict AMBER Alert criteria, which require a reasonable belief that an abduction has occurred and an imminent threat of death or serious injury, according to the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety.
That two-tier structure exists to widen the net for kids who may be in danger without a documented kidnapping. Oklahoma also proposed fast state backup for cases like Carter's: Senate Bill 1002, which passed the Senate and moved to the House in 2023, would require local police and sheriff's departments to notify both the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Public Safety within six hours of opening an investigation into a missing child search, as detailed by the Oklahoma Senate.
A State With One of the Nation's Highest Missing Persons Rates
The search for Carter unfolds against a broader statistical backdrop. Oklahoma records one of the highest missing persons rates in the country, with roughly 16 reported missing individuals per 100,000 residents compared to a national average closer to 6.5, according to federal NamUs database figures reported by Newsweek.
Behind the scenes, the Oklahoma Missing Persons Clearinghouse, housed within the Crimes Information Unit of the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, serves as the state's official liaison to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and provides assistance to partnering agencies, per the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. State law also requires agencies to log missing person reports into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System within 30 days under Francine's Law, passed in 2019 and named in memory of Francine Frost, whose 1981 disappearance went unsolved for decades.
National and Federal Alert Systems Keep Expanding
Oklahoma's alert framework doesn't stop with juveniles. In 2023, the state established the Kasey Alert System under House Bill 1077 to broadcast alerts for critically missing adults ages 18 to 59 believed to be abducted but who don't qualify for AMBER or Silver Alerts, a system named for Kasey Russell, a 29-year-old Cherokee Nation citizen who vanished in 2016, according to Potawatomi.org.
For now, investigators are focused on locating Rhylin Carter. Anyone with information is urged to contact the Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office.
