A 12-year-old girl was only two weeks away from giving birth when she vanished from her family home in the middle of the night – almost 30 years on neither she nor her child have ever been found
Little Nori Mays was four-years-old when her mother asked her to go and wake up her stepsister Celina for breakfast.
When the infant got to her room, she found the bed was made but pillows had been placed under a sheet to make it look as though someone was there. Celina Mays, who was nine months pregnant and just 12-years-old, had vanished in the night.
Nori, who is now 33, has never given up hope of finding her older sister despite there being no trace of her or the child she was carrying in almost 30 years.
According to reports, just before she mysteriously disappeared on 16 December 1996, her father, Crezonzo ‘C.J’ Mays, said he had told Celina, who was due to give birth two weeks later, she had to reveal who the father of her unborn baby was. But she refused to give up his identity.
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No one has ever publicly revealed who it was that got the 11 year old child pregnant. Other family members said she had told people he was a 16 year old boy. Investigators don’t know if she ever gave birth to the baby.
Last year, on what would have been Celina’s 40th birthday, Nori spoke to The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) to try to shine the spotlight on her sister’s unsolved case once more. “I know crime shows and crime junkies want to know everything about my sister’s case,” she said, “but you have to realise there is a broken family behind those stories.
“I’m asking for a bit of grace here, because it’s not every day your kid goes missing,” she added.
Because no clues to what happened to Celina were ever found, speculation was rife and numerous theories were circulating at the time. Some questioned if Celina had run away before the baby’s DNA could be taken and a paternity test done. Others pondered over if she had been kidnapped, although there were no signs of forced entry or a struggle in her room.
There were also questions raised over the family and what was going on behind closed doors. Celina was being raised by her dad and stepmum Evette Mays in a church called the Gospel of Christ Ministries in Mount Holly, New Jersey. It was reportedly a strict environment where she had little freedom and was homeschooled, which also led to questions over whether the father of her baby was someone close to her.
Nori claimed her aunt ran the church ‘like a cult’ and her parents and siblings were stuck there. “My aunt dictated my parents’ marriage and everyone else’s and their kids.” she explained. “I do not judge my dad or my mum for their inability to act out against the church. They were afraid, but they did everything they could to help Celina.”
There were other accusations made against the church, which has since been removed as a member of the Christ Gospel Ministries, including claims of ‘brainwashing’ the congregation. Investigators want anyone with any information about the church who hasn’t already spoken out to come forward.
Nori accepts there was a strained relationship between her family and the police at the time of her sister’s disappearance but thinks her father, who has since died, was treated unfairly. “These are things that not everyone knows. And I wish more people would ask questions as opposed to just putting out speculative comments on Facebook,” she said.
Nori prays a line can be drawn under past conjecture in the hope that her sister, who would now be 41, and her child, who would be 28, may finally be found. Although she is hopeful that one theory – that Celina’s birth mother Lynn persuaded someone to help her escape from the church – is true.
The investigation into Celina’s baffling case is still open. It was taken over by Detective Monica Pogorzelski of the Willingboro Police Department. Last year she said: “We remain hopeful that Celina and her child may be alive. After 27 years, the case is still an open investigation. We will not give up in our search and we hope to one day give Celina’s family the answers they deserve.”