Angie Mathews sounded desperate in her search to find her daughter, Mallory R. Mathews, a 16-year-old Aberdeen High School student who has been missing from the family’s west Aberdeen home since Sunday, June 12.

It’s now been 20 days since Mallory has been gone. Angie most recently talked to The Daily World on Wednesday, June 29, about Mallory.

The Mathews’ matriarch, who also has a younger teenage son and a 6-year-old son with her husband James, said her 6-year-old doesn’t understand why his big sister Mallory is not home.

Angie has reached out to the community, from passing out fliers to sharing the information of her missing daughter on Facebook, in order to find her daughter.

“We have fliers out at different stores,” Angie said. “(And then) every post of her that I have made on Facebook is public. We’re more than willing to get the information out. I have it public for a reason. I want everybody to have that information (so they) share that information.”

Angie, who is convinced that someone knows where her daughter is, is also convinced that individual isn’t talking. She believes Mallory is with someone who has a nonfamilial relationship with her, that it’s not a good relationship, and that it had been going on for six months before her disappearance.

“We’ve openly discouraged this relationship,” said Angie, while noting the person she believes knows where her daughter is, has denied having contact with Mallory.

She wonders what’s preventing her child from coming home.

“She’s a beautiful, talented, young woman,” Angie said. “And I just want her home.”

Angie said it’s hard to explain to the 6-year-old why Mallory is missing.

Angie described how Mallory and her youngest brother are so close that sometimes they have to remind him that his big sister needs some space.

“That’s something really special,” she said. “He’s got a great, big sister. She’s very missed and loved.”

Angie described her daughter as an “extremely gifted,” artist.

“She loves to draw,” she said. “She can draw for hours. She is also in band. With COVID-19 hitting, she didn’t get to do marching band her freshman year.”

But, this year, she got to participate in marching band at AHS and, according to Angie, Mallory loved it.

Angie said before Mallory disappeared, she joined a new friend group, and started falling out of her old friend group. She said the new friend group was not a “good friend group.”

“She’s a good, well-rounded kid,” said Angie of her daughter. “No kid is perfect. I certainly wasn’t. All kids have their faults. (And) she got with a rough group of kids.”

Despite those points, Angie wants people to understand how great Mallory is.

“She’s got her whole life ahead of her,” Angie said. “She’s so great at so many things. I don’t want to see her, because of this (decision to leave,) ruin her life over this.”

While Mallory has contacted her family since she was reported missing June 12, it was another family member who she messaged with a phone using a texting app. Angie said she’s tried to call the number to contact Mallory, but because of the app’s nature — according to Angie it uses a random number — there was no way to actually reach Mallory.

Angie said when she discovered Mallory was missing — the same day the disappearance was reported — her heart sank.

“You figure as a parent of a teenager that they’re gonna be kids, they’ll blow off steam, (and then) they’ll be back in a few hours,” Angie said. “But, in a few hours, she wasn’t home. I can’t just come and pick her up, because I don’t know where to start.”

Angie said she’s asked many of Mallory’s friends, but hasn’t gotten any leads on where her daughter might be. She said it’s not for a lack of trying.

Angie said her family and Aberdeen Police Department, such as APD Detective Cody Blodgett, have been in “constant communication.”

“As a parent, you feel you want more to be done,” she said. “It is your child and you want them to be the priority.”

Angie wants an “all-hands-on-deck” approach to finding her daughter. It sounds as though she’s certainly done her part in passing out fliers to several businesses in town, like Dennis Company Ace, in south Aberdeen, and other businesses through the other areas in town.

“Dennis Company was amazing,” Angie said. “We actually ran out of fliers, which I did not expect when we went in.”

She said an employee at the hardware store took down the information from her flier, made their own from it and posted it all over the doors and windows, and at every single cash register.

“It really made me feel like she matters,” Angie said. “I know she matters, but that (made me feel like) she matters to the community.”

She said the care the community has shown in helping her family find Mallory is “soothing and healing.”

“I feel very privileged and honored that my child is important enough to be talked about in our community,” she said. “It shows that she matters. Everybody matters, (but) it’s just when you have a child go missing, you don’t really understand what that means to somebody else until you start to see it.”