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Candlelight vigil held for missing 15-year-old girl in Commerce Township

‘I love you, Laken, and I really want you to come home’

COMMERCE TOWNSHIP, Mich. – An Oakland County teenager’s disappearance has friends and family baffled and begging for her safe return.

Laken Lewis was last seen in the Stratford Villa Mobile Home Park on Aug. 18.

Neighbors say they saw her out for a walk, and they said she was obviously walking back home but never arrived.

On Thursday (Sept. 1), a prayer vigil was held in her honor.

“It’s very out of character,” said her mother, Britney Fankhauser. “She would never run away. Even if she was like a minute late, she would call from a friend’s phone and say, ‘hey mom, I’m going to be a couple of minutes late.’ She would always get in contact with me, always.”

Read: Officials still searching for missing 15-year-old Commerce Township girl

None of that happened that night, and neighbors say they saw her near her home and didn’t think anything of it. Neighbors also say they saw a man and a woman who they did not recognize in the immediate area.

And while they thought it was weird, they didn’t think there was an issue. Now, they’re wondering.

Police say leads and tips have gone nowhere, and they need help.

Her friends and family just want her to return home.

“I love you, Laken, and I really want you to come home,” said friend Christen Herkness. “I’ve known you for six years. I don’t know why you’d do something like this. You guys are like my second family.”

Laken Lewis’s family and neighbors said she’d often walk the area as it was kind of her daily thing.


About the Authors
Brandon Carr headshot

Brandon Carr is a digital content producer for ClickOnDetroit and has been with WDIV Local 4 since November 2021. Brandon is the 2015 Solomon Kinloch Humanitarian award recipient for Community Service.

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