AURORA, Colo. — Eight years later, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Denver Office is still investigating the disappearance of Lashaya Stine.
On July 15, 2016, Lashaya, then 16, left her home in Aurora around 2 a.m. She was last seen in the area of E. Montview Boulevard and N. Peoria Street in the early morning hours, according to the FBI.
Lashaya was scheduled for a job interview on July 16 but never arrived. She has not been heard from since.
Local
Aurora mom still waiting for her daughter's return 5 years after her disappearance
Surveillance video from July 2016 shows Lashaya walking by herself not far from her mother’s home in Aurora. Her mother, Sabrina Jones, is convinced Lashaya was going to meet a boy, who Sabrina believes had become a bad influence on her daughter, a straight-A student at George Washington High School. That’s the last known piece of video showing the then-16-year-old.
The last credible tip about Lashaya came a couple of years ago when someone said they spotted her at a hotel on East Colfax. But nothing ever came of it and the tip line has been quiet ever since.
It wasn’t for lack of effort by Aurora police. They’ve searched and made pleas to the public. In November 2020, the FBI went to a house on Lansing Street in Aurora and searched for three days but found nothing.
Sabrina believes the trail got cold because Lashaya was trafficked out of state.
“It used to be I'd be so afraid for somebody to tell me that she was deceased," said Lashaya's mother in 2022. "But now it's... I'm at this point now where whatever it is, please somebody, just help me find out what happened to her. More than anything in this world, even if it means the worst, I just want to know what happened to her… good or bad. If she's out there living her best life, I want to know about that. If she's under another identity, I just want to know that. If my baby is not alive, I want to know that.”
Crime
Investigators continue searching Aurora home in connection to Lashaya Stine case
Lashaya would be 24 years old now. At the time of her disappearance, she was 5 feet 6 inches tall and 150 pounds with long black hair (usually worn in a bun) and brown eyes. She has a quarter-sized round scar on her chest.
Lashaya was last seen wearing a black V-neck t-shirt, black stonewash jeans, silver hoop earrings and a silver watch on her left arm.
Anyone with information about Lashaya's whereabouts is asked to call the Aurora Police Department at 303-627-3100 or the Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867.
