Southaven police are asking the public to help locate a missing 14-year-old boy who vanished from an apartment complex on one of the city's busiest residential corridors. Freddie Thomas was last seen just before 8:30 p.m. Thursday in the Rocky Creek Apartments area on Rasco Road, wearing a black short-sleeve shirt, black pants, yellow socks, and white Jordan 3 shoes.
The Southaven Police Department is urging anyone with information on Thomas's whereabouts to come forward, according to Action News 5. Tips can be called in to 662-393-8652 or emailed to [email protected]. The department has not released additional details about the circumstances surrounding his disappearance.
A Familiar Stretch of Road for Southaven Police
Rasco Road is one of Southaven's most heavily trafficked residential and educational corridors, lined with apartment communities and school campuses including Southaven High School and Southaven Middle School, both operated within the DeSoto County School District. That density of housing and schools along a single stretch of roadway means police calls involving young people in the area aren't unusual, and this isn't the first time a Rasco Road disappearance has prompted a public appeal from Southaven police.
Just last month, Southaven police issued a nearly identical request for help after 15-year-old Gracie Hood went missing near Southaven Middle School, also on Rasco Road. The recurrence underscores how the corridor's mix of apartment complexes and school zones has become a recurring backdrop for missing-youth cases in the city.
Department Resources and State Escalation Options
The Southaven Police Department, headquartered at 8691 Northwest Drive and led by Police Chief Seth Kern, maintains a dedicated K-9 Division with four handler-dog teams trained for suspect tracking, lost person searches, building sweeps, and evidence recovery. Kern, who took over the department in May 2025 after more than a decade with Southaven police and prior stints with the U.S. Coast Guard and Florida law enforcement agencies, succeeded former Chief Brent Vickers upon his retirement.
If local search efforts stall, Mississippi law gives police pathways to escalate the case. Under House Bill 377 and Mississippi Code § 43-15-401, local departments can request assistance from the Mississippi Department of Public Safety and push a local bulletin into a statewide Endangered Missing Person Advisory or, if abduction and imminent bodily harm are indicated, an Amber Alert. Complex cases can also draw support from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation or Mississippi State University's Forensic Recovery Unit, resources made available through a Department of Public Safety partnership established in 2025.
Cross-Border Proximity and Community Tip Networks
Southaven sits roughly 14 miles south of downtown Memphis along Interstate 55 and is Mississippi's third-largest city, a geography that frequently factors into local missing-person investigations given how easily people can cross into Tennessee. Public bulletins like the one for Thomas are often reshared through regional networks such as MissingSippi, which amplify official law enforcement notices across northern Mississippi and the Memphis metro area to generate community tips.
Nationally, the vast majority of missing-child cases involve runaways rather than abductions, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, which reports that runaway cases make up 92% of all missing child reports it receives. The organization also notes that of the 32,167 missing child cases it supported in 2025, agencies recovered 90% of those children. Anyone with information on Freddie Thomas's location is asked to contact Southaven police.
