A 15-year-old Henrietta boy has not been seen since he walked out of his family's home Sunday night, and Monroe County investigators are now asking the public for help finding him. Robin Justice Cole was last seen leaving his residence at approximately 8 p.m. on October 18, wearing a black shirt and black pants, according to the Monroe County Sheriff's Office.
Cole is described as standing 6 feet 1 inch tall and weighing about 200 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes, according to 103.9 WDKX. As reported by Newport Dispatch, authorities are asking anyone with information on his whereabouts to call 911.
Henrietta, a Monroe County suburb south of Rochester with more than 47,000 residents, does not operate its own municipal police force, which leaves the Monroe County Sheriff's Office as the primary law enforcement agency responsible for the search. The station's report notes that Henrietta is among the largest towns in the county without a dedicated town police department, meaning county deputies routinely handle missing person investigations there rather than a local force.
Countywide Resources Backing the Search
The sheriff's office, led by Sheriff Todd K. Baxter since 2017, oversees countywide services across four divisions — Police Road Patrol, Jail, Court Security, and Civil Bureau. Investigators searching for Cole also have access to the Regional Investigative Operations Center in Greece, a command facility that opened in December 2025 equipped with real-time data feeds, drone footage, and automated license plate readers built to coordinate cross-jurisdictional missing-person cases across the county.
Beyond local resources, the New York State Missing Persons Clearinghouse — established under Executive Law Section 837-e — maintains a 24-hour hotline and automatically cross-checks missing child reports against state and national law enforcement databases. The clearinghouse also assists local agencies like Monroe County's with poster distribution and investigative support during active searches.
A Pattern of Recent Cases Across Monroe County
Cole's disappearance follows a string of missing youth cases that Monroe County agencies have handled in recent weeks. Hoodline previously reported on a missing Perinton teen found safe in early October, after 14-year-old Sa'nyla Burris-Garcia Morales was located through joint efforts by Rochester police and sheriff's deputies. Other recent Hoodline coverage detailed searches for missing teens in Penfield, including 17-year-old Amya Hester and 15-year-old Nyliana Banks.
Statewide, 10,629 children under 18 were reported missing to law enforcement in New York in 2025, with 94% of those cases classified as runaways, according to the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services. About 10 percent of missing youth cases reported that year remained active by year's end. Nationally, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children's 2025 report found that roughly 90% of missing youth cases are resolved through law enforcement coordination and community tips, according to the Hudson Valley Post.
Cole's case has not been classified under the state's Missing Child Alert system, which can be activated for endangered missing youth under 21 who do not meet the stricter AMBER Alert criteria requiring verified evidence of abduction and risk of serious harm. For now, the sheriff's office is relying on the public's help and direct calls to 911 to track down the teenager's location.
