A teenage boy is thought to be in "extreme danger" after he went missing in Indiana and was reportedly last seen wearing a shirt with "disturbing" writing on it.
According to an alert by Indiana State Police, the last time 14-year-old Scottie Dean Morris was seen was at around 8:30 PM on Thursday (March 16) when he was spotted in Eaton, a small town of around 1,600 people northeast of Indianapolis.
The alert states that the youngster is "5 foot 4 inch tall, 150 pounds," has "brown hair with blue eyes," and that he was "last seen wearing black shoes, red and black shorts and a white T-shirt with writing on the front."
"He is believed to be in extreme danger and may require medical assistance," the Indiana Clearinghouse for Information on Missing Children and Missing Endangered Adults stated in the alert.
Indiana State Police has shared an image featuring a distressed-looking Scottie in a shirt with the words "I’m a liar" handwritten onto it with a black marker pen. Other words on the shirt include "cheat" and it also appears to read: "I hurt my brother."
Drawn onto the shirt on the top right-hand corner is a crying face.
Police started searching for the boy on Thursday night and released a missing person alert the next morning.
On Friday, officials wrote on Facebook that "we currently have over 100 volunteers out searching for Scotty Morris, which is so amazing and we are very grateful!"
They went on to say that they had sent out two boats in a rover in the area and were also using two infrared drones, as well as two bloodhound units, which were sent in from Grant County.
Authorities said on Sunday that they would not be setting up a search party "because we will have helicopters from the Indiana State Police using their infrared cameras. We ask that if you continue to search on your own today, please refrain from wooded areas, tree lines, rivers, etc as this will only hinder the investigation while they’re in the air searching," via WLWT.
Police Chief Jay Turner confirmed to 21Alive that Scottie's parents, Felicia and Brian Morris, made him wear the shirt in order to punish him - but it is unclear why such punishment was thought to be necessary.
He said: "The shirt, it was quite unorthodox, kind of disturbing, and we're looking into that."
