Federal authorities are looking for two Black girls who have been missing from their home in northern Michigan for nearly two months.
FBI Offices in Detroit and Miami have announced that they are working with the Roscommon County Sheriff’s Office in Michigan to track down teen sisters Iris and Tamara Perez, according to WPBN.
Iris, 14, and Tamara, 15, disappeared on June 28 and were last spotted by their neighbor near their Houghton Lake residence, the FBI said. The two were walking toward woods near their home when they were last seen.
According to the agency, footage shows a vehicle described as “a newer model, white Jeep” near the scene where the duo vanished. Officials said the sisters lived with their adoptive parents in Florida until the family moved to Michigan in March.
“They moved to Michigan after they were found in the biological mother’s home in Port St. Lucie, Florida,” the FBI noted.
The Perez sisters are among the thousands of Black people reported missing every year. Statistics from the Black and Missing Foundation Inc. show that people of color made up nearly 40 percent of missing cases in 2022. The data is alarming, considering that Black people only comprise 13 percent of the population. The nonprofit organization emphasized that more than half of missing people of color are children under 18.
Experts and advocates have repeatedly called out how Black women and girls do not receive the same media coverage as their white counterparts. More recently, the conversation was propelled to the forefront after the September 2021 disappearance of Gabby Petito, a 22-year-old influencer who went missing during a van excursion with her fiancé. Her story made national headlines while stories of missing people of color were buried.
“I think oftentimes the media and even law enforcement can show that [minority] lives are not as important,” Black and Missing Foundation co-founder Natalie Wilson said in an interview with Good Morning America in 2021. “We have to remember that these are mothers and daughters and fathers and children that are missing, and they are definitely needed and valued in our communities.”
According to the FBI, the Perez sisters have connections to Houghton Lake and Port St. Lucie and have ties to Lake Worth, Florida, and Winchester, Tennessee.
Iris is described as 5 feet, weighs 140 pounds, and has a star tattoo on the left side of her neck. Local news reported that she was seen wearing green pajama pants with moons and stars and a black t-shirt with an American flag in red lips. Her sister Tamara is 5 feet 3 and weighs 120 pounds. She was reportedly wearing blue jeans and a green shirt.
“Anyone with information concerning the whereabouts of Iris and Tamara Perez should immediately contact the Roscommon County Sheriff’s Office at (989) 275-5101,” the FBI said.
