Gabrielle Swainson

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The FBI has joined the search for a South Carolina cheerleader who vanished without a trace from her bedroom.

Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott says a person who wanted to remain anonymous donated $2,500 to the reward fund and his department matched it, along with $1,000 from Crimestoppers.

Gabrielle Swainson, 15, disappeared between 3:30 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. last Saturday, August 18, 2012 during the time her mother was at work, police said.

When mother Elvia Swainson returned home Saturday morning, Gabrielle’s bed was empty.

“I grabbed my phone and started calling her number. The number rang a couple of times then it stopped,” Swainson said.

Several more attempts to reach her daughter went straight to voicemail, she said.

Although there were no signs of foul play, investigators believe the teen’s disappearance was not voluntary.

“Her purse was still there with her charger for her phone in it and all the ingredients of her purse like her wallet and her credit card, everything is still there,” said Chandra Cleveland-Jennings, a private investigator hired by Swainson.

Cleveland-Jennings said there has been no activity on the teen’s phone since her disappearance. Police have not said whether they have been able to locate a signal.

Gabrielle missed the first day of her sophomore year of high school on Thursday at Ridge View High School, where she had just made the junior varsity cheerleading squad.

“I don’t know what has happened. I don’t know how it happened and this is really a nightmare. It really is,” Elvia Swainson said. “It’s the worst situation a parent could be in.”

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This entry was posted on Saturday, August 25th, 2012 at 5:23 pm and is filed under $5,000+, Missing Persons, South Carolina. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.