Ritu Jha-
It’s a month since the schoolgoing teenager Tanvi Marupally went missing from Conway, Arkansas. Residents have turned their anger toward to the police who, they say, have been lackadaisical in the investigation and had not looked for CCTV footage until the 13th day of the girl going missing.
The family hired a a private investigator, and the locals are working hard to find her. Last week, they held a candlelight vigil praying for her safety.
On January 17, Tanvi never returned home from school not did she board the schoolbus she usually returned on.
Lacey Kanipe, spokesperson, Conway Police Department, told indica, “We are still searching for Tanvi.” She said the police had reached out to the US Marshals and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for assistance with this investigation.
Marupally, a junior high student at Conway Junior High School, was last seen walking to the schoolbus she usually takes to go home, but she never boarded it, and walked further.
At the time of the incident, Tanvi was wearing a purple winter coat, a pink pullover, a blue shirt and jeans, and blue backpack. Her parents said she is 5 ft 5 in tall and has short black hair and wears glasses.
Many community members who joined forces to look for Tanvi now believe that the police might have reacted with greater urgency had the child been white or belonged to a more prominent family. Tanvi’s parents are Indian nationals on an immigrant visa and work for a tech company.
While the police and the teenager’s family initially believed she ran away from home after learning that her family might be deported to India following her father’s possible firing in the tech industry meltdown, her family now believes that she has not returned home because she may be held against her wish and is unable to contact them.
Jenny Wallace, who organized the candle vigil on February 12 and is organizing searches for Tanvi, said, “Very little was done to locate Tanvi in the first two weeks after she went missing. I met with the police chief and updated him about these factors that have hampered investigations and delayed the tracking of the missing girl.”
Wallace has been spearheading the citizens’ search for Tanvi. She has raised ~$1800 with people’s donations and that has been used to fund eight digital billboards with Tanvi’s information on them. She has also been conducting door-to-door searches with help of volunteers.
“It’s like she’s my own child. Every one of us should be responding to this like she’s your own child. There’s no such thing as somebody else’s child. Children should be protected by adults. And if a child is missing, you move heaven and earth to bring the child home. And that just didn’t happen in the first two weeks,” Wallace said.
“Now the US Marshall’s office is involved, but that’s only after the family hired a private investigator. And, I do think the police officers now, in weeks three and four have done a whole lot more. But the problem is, until Week 2, hardly anything was done,” she added.
“We are begging the police to ask the public to look at their cameras. There is a missing child. But, they didn’t. So that night I did a Facebook live on the street. She went missing at that apartment building that nobody checked the cameras on day 13 because I needed our community to
understand,” she added.
“I begged the police to do a 90-day search of Tanvi’s Chromebook. I think all they’ve done at this point is read her emails, and seen her search history. But they can go back to see whether she Googled anything before leaving. But, she never opened her Chromebook. If she would have logged in, there would have been a timestamp. The teachers
can see when she logged in, but they haven’t done it yet. At this point, I don’t think that Chromebook has been completely taken care of. And that’s what we’re hoping that they can take that Chromebook and get everything off of it,” she said.
The teen’s parents informed the police the same day she went missing. When Tanvi did not get off the school bus, they contacted both drivers of the two school buses which she used to usually board to reach home from Conway Junior High School.
“Both the bus drives said that Tanvi had not boarded the bus that day. And then the mother immediately called the police. Her parents are heartbroken and have walked miles
and miles every day to search for their daughter,” Wallace said.
“Tanvi is a very good student and a good girl. That’s why I was upset that they kept saying she was a runaway. I know she was upset because her parents told her that they might relocate to India the day before.”
“She must be heartbroken and scared. It has been a month. But the cops are assuming that she’s had this huge plan to run away. But those are assumptions without any evidence. They have no clues of anything except that last video of her on Davis Street,” Wallace said.
“She could have been abducted. It is winter. We already had
temperatures below freezing and snow. This case should be treated with urgency and the case should be dealt with as that of a missing child, not a case of runaway.”
Though Conway is not a crime-ridden town, Interstate 40 which runs through the town, has three different exits and sex trafficking is definitely an issue.
“That is why I can’t fathom why the police dropped the ball on the investigation I told the police chief that even if she was a runaway. She is a minor and from a minority community. And, she belongs to the vulnerable group who are being sex-trafficked,” she added.
Jeremy Chrysler, whose daughter attended one class with Tanvi, told indica, “I have not met her but I recognize her name because a day before she was missing, my daughter mentioned a student who works hard and gets good grades. So, I recognize her name, and a couple of days later we hear this.”
The other aspect of the mystery is that Conway does not have a large bus station or a train track for 30 miles. “Everybody is working. Some of the camera footage is gone and its frustrating that it was here with us at some point in time, and now its’s gone,” Chrysler said, “I tried to help technically, with maps and organize people through online platforms. It’s a small town, a pretty Christian town and religious town and I don’t know what religion Tavi and her parents follow but we see people of all faiths coming together and praying for her.
A month after she went missing, Tanvi Marupally of Conway, Arkansas, remains untraced
