As the search enters week six for 16-year-old Tennessee teen Sebastian Rogers, more questions than answers loom, as police officials say that there is still no indication of foul play.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Sebastian was last seen on February 26 at his family home in Sumner County. TBI subsequently issued an AMBER Alert on the afternoon of February 27.
Sebastian’s stepfather, Chris Proudfoot, previously told “Crime Stories” host Nancy Grace that he was almost four hours away in Memphis, working on a construction project at St. Jude when Sebastian disappeared.
Although he has not been named a suspect in Sebastian’s disappearance, Proudfoot told Grace he would take a polygraph test, but, so far, it’s unclear if they did.
“He told me he would take a polygraph if I set it up. I set it up. I went through a lot of hoops to get it set up–when convenient to him in the area where he says he’s working. Then he wouldn’t take it and blames the TBI. So now I found out he’s told other outlets he’s taken one and passed. Do you know the truth?” Nancy Grace asked Sebastian’s father, Seth Rogers, on Wednesday’s “Crime Stories.”
Seth Rogers said he didn’t know whether Proudfoot had taken a polygraph test, but said he volunteered to take the test himself.
“I didn’t need to because they had my location and whereabouts, but I still volunteered,” Rogers said. “If somebody wants me to take one, that’s something of my own free will.”
Rogers added that he’s been searching for his son routinely, but his efforts are being sabotaged by people following and harassing him.
“Somebody doesn’t want me to find my son. They have been…there’s things that have been coming in off the Internet, I need to stop searching for him. I’ve had people following me around since day nine, day 10 people have been following me around once I started getting volunteers to help me.
“They started following around my volunteers trying to be an intimidating factor. And now I found out that… that not only that, they’re going back to where we’ve already flyered and they’re taking the flyers down.”
The father also touched on allegations of possible child abuse at the home. Rogers said he was unaware of a previous spanking incident that Chris Proudfoot spoke about, but he did recall that his son didn’t want to return to his mother and stepfather’s home.
“On multiple occasions, he has stood there and told me he doesn’t want to go back. And I’ve asked him, ‘Why don’t you want to go back?’ and he wouldn’t tell me. He didn’t say why, he was just like, ‘I don’t want to go back.’”
“At that point in time, I’m just, okay maybe it’s the freedom he gets at my house. And he’s a teenager. And now I’m finding out about this stuff. I wish he told me.”
Sebastian is described as a white male who stands 5 feet, 5 inches tall, and weighs between 106 to 108 pounds. He has dirty blond hair and was last seen wearing a black sweatshirt and black sweatpants. His flashlight keychain is unaccounted for.
Anyone with information regarding Rogers’ whereabouts should call the Sumner County Sheriff’s Office at 615-451-3838 or the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation at 1-800-TBI-FIND.
[Feature Photo: Sebastian Rogers/Tennessee Bureau of Investigation]
