A 17-year-old Lorain girl has been missing for nearly four months, last seen wearing a pink shirt and black leggings with red-dyed hair before she vanished from her hometown. Damaya Clayton has not been seen since June 20, 2026.
According to FOX 8 News, Clayton disappeared from Lorain, Ohio, and anyone with information is asked to call 440-204-2100. FOX 8 has featured Clayton's case with Amanda Berry as part of an ongoing effort to generate leads on missing Northeast Ohio youth.
Official registries add further detail to the search. Clayton is described as female in a MissingKids.org poster from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
A Disagreement at Home, Then Silence
Ohio's missing children are overwhelmingly runaways rather than victims of abduction.
Outside the headlines, Clayton was known around Lorain as an athlete. MaxPreps lists volleyball statistics for Clayton under Lorain High School.
How Ohio Tracks Thousands of Missing Children Each Year
Clayton's case fits into a much larger statewide picture. The Ohio Attorney General's 2025 Missing Children Clearinghouse Report documented 15,367 missing child cases statewide in 2025, with law enforcement successfully recovering 97.8 percent — 15,024 children — safely by year's end. Of those cases, 7,656 involved runaways who left home without permission, while stranger abductions remained extremely rare, with only two reported across the entire state that year, per the Ohio Attorney General's report.
Under guidelines outlined by the advocacy group Cleveland Missing, the National Crime Information Center database gives federal and local agencies nationwide access to missing-person data.
Federal Partners and Local Investigators
Local Police and Public Tips
Anyone with information about Clayton's whereabouts is urged to call 440-204-2100.
