Mother desperate to find missing DeKalb teen

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. - A DeKalb mother is desperately searching for her 16-year-old son who has been missing for a week.

Anthony "AJ" Haszelton has asthma.

That’s a preexisting condition that could complicate a coronavirus recovery and it's the main reason why his mother has kept such a close eye on him during the state-wide stay at home order.

Unfortunately he hasn’t been seen since Sunday, April 27th.

"It's just like eating me up inside," his mother, Benji Abbey said.

She says exactly a week ago she made her son breakfast and went back to her room to relax.

"It wasn’t until the following day that I figured something was wrong," she said. "...a girl texted me and said 'hey, I think something’s wrong with AJ".

Abbey says it's unlike her son to leave the house without notifying someone like his mother or older sister.

What’s more concerning, she says, is his social media.

"He hasn’t been on Snapchat, he hasn’t been on IG and his phone is going straight to voicemail," she said.

Friends say his last Snapchat indicated he was in Morgan County with an unknown older man and hasn’t updated his accounts since his disappearance.

"At this point I don’t know if he’s alive," Abbet said.

DeKalb police are investigating this as a potential runaway situation, but anyone with information about AJ’s disappearance is urged to give them a call police.