A Pontiac family is still waiting for word on 17-year-old Taliah Deshay Malie Sparks more than a month after she disappeared, and the Oakland County Sheriff's Office says it needs the public's help to bring her home. Deputies say Sparks ran away from her family's residence on the 600 block of Emerson Avenue around 10 a.m. on Sept. 18, and she hasn't been seen since.
According to ClickOnDetroit, the sheriff's office says Sparks is known to frequent the area of Clifford and Whittemore streets in Pontiac, a detail investigators hope might jog someone's memory or lead to a sighting. She's described as Black, with brown eyes and naturally styled red hair, standing about 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighing roughly 230 pounds, per WXYZ 7 News Detroit. When she was last seen, she was wearing a black T-shirt, blue jeans and clear-frame glasses.
A Search That Keeps Stretching On
The sheriff's office is continuing its search for Sparks, and anyone who has seen her or has information about where she might be is asked to call 248-858-4950. It's a number investigators are hoping rings soon, given that it has now been more than a month without a confirmed sighting.
This isn't the first time Sparks has gone missing from her Pontiac home. The sheriff's office has previously sought help locating her after she ran away in 2024, the same report from ClickOnDetroit notes. At that time, her father said she had run away from home multiple times before and had been found in Pontiac or Detroit at unknown locations.
Conflicting Details From Earlier Reports
Past coverage of Sparks' disappearances has not always lined up. A July 2024 report from the same outlet described her as 15 years old at the time and said she was last seen leaving her Pontiac home on foot on a Saturday, June 22, without returning. A separate account from Mid Michigan NOW instead placed her last sighting on Sept. 20 of that year, after she walked away from her family's home — a discrepancy the available reporting does not resolve.
Physical descriptions have varied between reports as well. The 2026 account describes Sparks at 5 feet 7 inches and about 230 pounds with red hair, while the earlier Mid Michigan NOW report put her at 5 feet 8 inches and 220 pounds with black hair. Those differences remain unreconciled in the public record. The same 2024 account from Mid Michigan NOW said Sparks had been active on social media after she disappeared but had not responded to her family's attempts to reach her, while a ClickOnDetroit report from that same period said she had not been in contact with her family at all since going missing.
Hoodline previously covered an earlier search for Sparks after she went missing in 2024. More than a month into this latest disappearance, the Oakland County Sheriff's Office is renewing its appeal for anyone with information to come forward.
