Police: Evidence suggests missing Horry County teen “left of her own free will”

HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WPDE) — The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and Horry County Police are searching for a missing teen girl, according to Lt. Raul Denis with the Horry County Police Department. Marley McKenna Spindler, 16, was last seen with a 22-year-old local man named Jeremy on Thursday at about 7:30 a.m. at the Chick-Fil-A on Highway 544, according to police. Spindler, a student at Socastee High School, was at the Chick-Fil-A with her friends before going to school. According to the report, Spindler left Chick-Fil-A to go pick up the man named Jeremy and told friends that she was going to take him home in Garden City. Spindler was to return to school after she took Jeremy home, but did not go to school and hasn’t been seen since, according to a police report. Another person who talked to police said that Spindler met Jeremy about three weeks ago on the beach. Around 8 p.m. Friday, Horry County police announced they had located Jeremy and cleared him in connection with the case. Monday, Lt. Denis said law enforcement agencies in North Carolina joined in on the search. “We talked to just about everybody she knows in this area and there’s a possibility that she may have a boyfriend or ex-boyfriend in North Carolina somewhere, where she’s originally from. So we have people up there looking for her,” said Denis. A clerk at Ocean Reef Resort answered the phone and said that the phone had been found in the parking lot. There are no security cameras in the parking lot of Ocean Reef Resort, according to the report. “I know it appears bad on the surface, but the phone did not show any evidence of being dropped or flown. It was actually placed in a very conspicuous place where we believe she may have had some previous contact with. It’s our understanding that she’d been to this hotel before where she left her phone,” said Denis. Police say she may have been driving to Ocean Boulevard in Myrtle Beach, but they haven’t been able to find her vehicle. As of Friday evening, police say they believe she is likely alone. “We had information that Myrtle Beach cameras caught her on the boulevard, driving up the boulevard, and it was evident in that video that she was by herself. She also after that went to the bank and withdrew some money, not a lot, because she’s a teenager, but she withdrew some money and that’s the last time we have her on film,” said Denis. Horry County Police released four pictures of Spindler on Tuesday, August 25 that were taken by surveillance cameras at the bank where she withdrew money the day she went missing. The NCMEC said Marley was last seen wearing pearl earrings, long blue jeans, a white flowy tank top and gold Jack Rodgers Sandals. She was carrying a cross body purse, a Vera Bradley back pack and Vera Bradley lunch box. However, Lt. Denis said in the surveillance video it appears Spindler has since changed clothes. Police have provided a photo of the car Spindler was last seen driving which was a 2002 silver Ford Escape with South Carolina tag KFI776. “The evidence so far doesn’t indicate any foul play. It appears that she left of her own free will. What little we know about her that we’ve seen on these cameras at the bank and on the road is that she’s by herself. She walked into the bank, it’s not like she used an ATM machine, so she could have said ‘hey I’m in trouble’ or ‘help me’. There’s no reason to believe anything’s going on right now other than she’s missing for whatever reason. We’re not clear whether she’s choosing to be missing or whether there is some circumstance that we don’t know about but we don’t believe there’s any foul play going on and we don’t believe she’s in any particular danger either,” said Denis. Spindler is 5’08” and 100 pounds with blue eyes and brownish-blonde hair. If you have any information on where Spindler is, call Horry County Police at 843-915-TIPS (8477) or 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678). Photo courtesy of WPDE