KY WYNTER WAGONER: Missing from Orlando, KY - 14 Oct 2025 - Age 13

https://fox56news.com/news/kentucky/fbi-helping-with-ongoing-search-for-southern-kentucky-teen/

FBI helping with ongoing search for southern Kentucky teen​

Officials with multiple Kentucky law enforcement agencies held a press conference at 1 p.m. on Wednesday to update the public about an ongoing search for Wynter B. Wagoner, who has been missing since Oct. 14.

FOX 56 News crew members attended Wednesday’s press conference, where the Rockcastle County Sheriff’s Office announced that the FBI would be helping in the search to find Wagoner.

Officials said that since she went missing, Wagoner’s social media accounts have gone silent.

Around noon on Oct. 22, officials with the Mount Vernon Fire Department wrote that crews had been helping with several search efforts for Wagoner, 13, in the Climax area. She had reportedly last been seen in the Orlando area.

https://fox56news.com/news/kentucky/family-of-missing-southern-kentucky-teen-asks-for-her-safe-return-offers-cash-reward/

Family of missing southern Kentucky teen asks for her safe return, offers cash reward​

Exhausted, pained, and worried, yet Wynter Wagoner’s family is standing together amid her disappearance. The only priority they have right now is ensuring that she is safe.

Haley Whitehead, Wynter’s aunt, said the 13-year-old had been at her latest foster care home for about a year, when she went missing the evening of Oct. 14 in Rockcastle County near the Orlando area.

“She’s not an outdoor girl. She’s more of a Netflix and chill kind of girl. She didn’t walk out of those woods. She didn’t go run into the woods. Someone has had to have got her and picked her up and took her out of there,” Whitehead said.

The family is offering thousands of dollars out of their own pocket for information that would lead to Wynter’s return.

“As long as I have confirmation she’s safe, that’s what we need at this point. Nothing else matters, and I will gladly hand over $5,000 to know she’s safe,” Whitehead said.

After more than a week of searching and distributing flyers, the family is wondering why more hasn’t been done.

“This should have probably been more of an alert early on. I do feel like a new system needs put in play to get the word out about missing,” Whitehead said.

Local law enforcement officials stated that more agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), are now involved.

Tpr. Scottie Pennington, a Kentucky State Police public affairs officer, shared that, “searches are going on, ground searches, and they’re flying drones. We’re just looking for the assistance of the people. If you see something, say something.”


MEDIA - WYNTER WAGONER: Missing from Orlando, KY - 14 Oct 2025 - Age 13

 

[GrandmaBear]

The name is the same and it makes the "waking into the woods" comment make a bit more sense, like the adding saw her waking into the woods, but she definitely words it like the foster home was elsewhere.

It's a bit odd to me she'd be unhappy f her foster care was family. I get it isn't her dad and she is 13 and may not like the rules or something, who knows, but I just was under the impression the foster care was not family. THere may be a rift because didn't the father claim that he nor his family was notified nor talked to?

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

Rockcastle teen missing for 6 weeks, as Thanksgiving arrives, family pleads for safe return - WBONTV Local News for Richmond KY

As families across Kentucky gather for Thanksgiving, one Rockcastle County family is facing a painful holiday without answers. It has now been six weeks since 13-year-old Wynter Wagoner disappeared from the Orlando community on October 14, and loved ones say the passing days have become...

wbontv.com

Rockcastle teen missing for 6 weeks, as Thanksgiving arrives, family pleads for safe return​

As families across Kentucky gather for Thanksgiving, one Rockcastle County family is facing a painful holiday without answers. It has now been six weeks since 13-year-old Wynter Wagoner disappeared from the Orlando community on October 14, and loved ones say the passing days have become increasingly agonizing.

Wynter had been living with a foster family at the time she vanished. Her father, Dusty Wagoner, says nothing about her disappearance feels like a typical runaway situation.

“It doesn’t feel like a runaway… you know what I mean,” he said.

Her aunt, Haley Whitehead, believes Wynter may have been struggling with a recent school change and says the emotional toll has been overwhelming.

“It’s like a cycle of emotions. One minute you’re scared, the next you’re angry,” Whitehead said. “You shouldn’t have to imagine every possibility — everything that could have happened or might be happening.”

Whitehead hopes Wynter might see a message from her family and reach out.

“I just hope that if she sees this, something clicks and she says, ‘I need to call somebody.’ I just want a little bit of hope.”

Wynter’s mother, Summer Engle, says she is holding onto optimism even as the holiday season makes her daughter’s absence even harder to bear.

“I’m going to stay positive because as a mother, you know in your heart if your child is okay,” Engle said. “It was so unexpected, and I’m frustrated she hasn’t been found yet — especially with the holidays here.”

According to LEX 18, investigators with the Rockcastle County Sheriff’s Office have conducted numerous interviews, reviewed surveillance footage, and carried out multiple ground and drone searches. Deputies say they continue to follow up on every tip but will not release details that could jeopardize the investigation.

Wynter’s father is pleading directly to anyone who may know where she is.

“If it’s somebody who’s afraid to let her go, just let her go,” Wagoner said. “I won’t say a word to you. Just let her come home safe. I’d give my life for her — I’d switch spots in a heartbeat.”

Whitehead echoed that desperation:

“I would love to just hear her voice… or even a short video clip. Anything. Just give me something.”

Dusty Wagoner describes Wynter as “an amazing person who loved people and never bothered anyone.”

As Thanksgiving arrives, he says the family’s only wish is simple:

“We just want her home safe.”

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

Family holds onto hope during first Thanksgiving since 13-year-old Wynter Wagoner disappeared

Wynter Wagoner’s family will face an emotional Thanksgiving tomorrow as they gather in Rockcastle County for their first holiday since the 13-year-old disappeared six weeks ago.

www.lex18.com

Family holds onto hope during first Thanksgiving since 13-year-old Wynter Wagoner disappeared​

Wynter Wagoner’s family will face an emotional Thanksgiving tomorrow as they gather in Rockcastle County for their first holiday since the 13-year-old disappeared six weeks ago.

“We'll do the typical (Thanksgiving), make food, and hang out at the house,” her aunt, Haley Whitehead, said before adding that they will also be praying for her safe return.

According to Haley, Wynter returned home early in the evening of October 14 and hasn’t been heard from since. She says there has been no activity on any of her social media accounts since then either.

“This is just me personally,” Haley began to explain. “I feel like she went out the basement door and had been talking to somebody, and it was planned for her to be picked up. That's what I think,” she stated.

Whitehead then explained how Wynter lived in the basement of her foster parents’ home, which has a point of egress, making it easy to walk in and out.

But Haley said her niece wasn’t strategic enough to pull off something like this alone. She knows Wynter very well as she spent many nights at the Whitehead’s home and vacationed with them, including her own teenage daughter, with whom Wynter is very close.

“She’s doing okay. She’s concerned. She feels like if she had a way to communicate, she would have by now,” Whitehead said.

The Rockcastle County Sheriff's Office recently posted a few updated pictures of Wynter on Facebook along with an update about their continued search, which has included drones while working in cooperation with the FBI, U.S Marshal’s Service, and Kentucky State Police. But so far, their search hasn’t been successful.

“Just trying to keep the faith. That’s all you can do,” Whitehead said.