Investigators in Franklin are still actively seeking and investigating tips in the community’s only missing child case.
Franklin police said detectives were approached in early 2005 by the father of Jocelyn Turcios. He claimed he had not seen his then three-year-old daughter since October 2004 and was supposed to have visitation rights.
In February 2005, a warrant was issued for the young girl’s mother Sandra Gutierrez on a charge of custodial interference. Detectives said Gutierrez took her daughter and fled the area, possibly headed to Mexico.
“We don’t know for certain that being with her mother isn’t the best thing for her. We just need to know that she’s okay,” said Lt. Charles Warner with the Franklin Police Department. “The family shared that they had concerns over domestic violence, and that Sandra was trying to take this little girl and make a better life for them. There’s a right and wrong way to do those things, and this was obviously the wrong way.”
Lt. Warner said the last contact his department had with Jocelyn’s father was in 2014, when he was being jailed in Louisiana on sex charges and was scheduled to be deported to Honduras.
In early 2018, Franklin police released age-progress photos that showed what Jocelyn would look like at her current age of 16.
“Our hopes are that someone will recognize that little girl and say, ‘I think I’ve seen her, I think I know where she’s at’,” Lt. Warner said. “I think that we owe it, not only to Jocelyn to make sure that she’s okay, and to her mom to make sure that she complies with the law and what the courts have ordered, but also for the rest of that family. They’re left wondering.”
Detectives said Jocelyn could be using her mother’s last name of Gutierrez.
Anyone with information is urged to contact the Franklin Police Department at 615-794-2513.
