Emanuel Lee Braxton, 15, is listed as missing by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.
Braxton is 15 years old.
Anyone with information on Braxton's whereabouts is asked to call 911.
Missing Youth Reports Add Up Across North Carolina
Braxton's case adds to a steady stream of missing-juvenile reports logged statewide each year. North Carolina recorded 8,758 reports of missing children in 2024, according to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety. The agency's figures reflect the scale of the challenge facing families and law enforcement across the state, though they offer no specific insight into Braxton's situation.
In nearby Charlotte, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department's Missing Persons Unit fields more than 3,500 missing-person reports annually, with roughly 70% of those involving juveniles between ages 13 and 17, per the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. The NC Center for Missing Persons also tracks yearly totals and breakdowns of juvenile and adult missing-person reports by race, with its missing-children repository showing data current as of Oct. 25, 2026.
Past Regional Efforts to Recover Missing Teens
Charlotte-area agencies have mounted coordinated pushes to track down missing juveniles before. Back in 2021, CMPD and the U.S. Marshals Service recovered 157 runaway and missing juveniles through an initiative called Operation Carolina Homecoming, according to the Charlotte Observer. That operation found 130 missing juveniles in its first four months alone, with an additional 27 recovered over the 12 calendar days from April 26 through May 7 of that year.
Most of the teens recovered during that effort were between 14 and 18 years old, the outlet reported. CMPD had partnered with Atrium Health Levine Children's Hospital, Pat's Place Child Advocacy Center, the North Carolina ISAAC Fusion Center and Mecklenburg County Child Protective Services on that push, illustrating the kind of multi-agency coordination that missing-juvenile cases in the region can draw.
Anyone with information about Braxton's whereabouts, however small, is urged to call 911.
