Mother Desperate For Information On 14-Year-Old Burbank Girl Who Has Been Missing 1 Month

BURBANK, IL—A whole month has passed since 14-year-old Patricia “PJ” Perez has been reported missing. The Burbank eighth grader was last seen in the late evening hours of June 7.

This week, her mother, Raechel, entered her daughter’s case into the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children database. PJ’s case has not yet been posted, because the missing kid center is waiting for verification from Burbank police.

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“They asked a whole bunch of stuff,” Tricia Ponicki said, a family friend and advocate from the BCA Hub Youth Center in Willowbrook.

Patricia, who goes by “PJ,” was last seen at her home near Mason Avenue and 79th Street in Burbank. She was at home on her iPad around 11:30 p.m. Later, around 3 a.m., her mother noticed she was gone.

PJ is 4-feet-11-inches tall, weighs 90 pounds, and has blue-gray eyes and ash blonde hair.

Ponicki has known PJ and her mother since PJ was in first grade. Their daughters went through grammar school together. PJ was a member of her school’s cheer team. She was plugged into Girl Scouts.

“She was a sweet girl,” Ponicki said. "Her cats were her life."

Over the past year, PJ would take off, usually with one or two other girls from her friend group. The longest time was a week, but she would always come home.

This time it feels different.

“The other times she would pack makeup and clothes,” Ponicki said. “This time she didn’t take anything with her and may have been in her pajamas when she ran out to meet somebody, intending to come back inside.”

Someone left a cryptic message in a Facebook group, asking if PJ had fuzzy pink slippers and a black backpack.

“She did have pink fuzzy slippers and a black backpack, but it was still in her room,” Ponicki said. “We think she intended to come back inside.”

Since PJ vanished, there have been no confirmed sightings or updates regarding PJ’s whereabouts.

For now, they’re pinning their hopes on a green dot showing PJ as being active on one of her TikTok accounts as recently as Saturday. When her mother and Ponicki left comments asking if she was okay, the comments were immediately taken down and the green dot went off.

“We’re hoping it was her behind there,” Ponicki said.

Anyone with information on 14-year-old Patricia “PJ” Perez’s whereabouts is asked to contact the Burbank Police Department at 708-924-7300 or text a tip to 708-793-3388; or call 911.