UPDATE: Missing Toms River Girl Found: Police

TOMS RIVER, NJ — (Updated, 7:45 p.m.) The Toms River teenager who had been missing since last weekend has been located, Toms River police said Thursday evening.

Toms River Police spokesman Ralph Stocco did not release details but said Isabelle "Belle" Lavender had been located and thanked the public for their help in locating the girl.

Belle's mother earlier Thursday said the 16-year-old Toms River High School North student was not the type of kid you'd expect to run away.

Belle was getting ready to start a job later this week, her mother, Crystal Mazur, said Thursday morning.

"She had been looking for a job all summer," Crystal said, adding that she paid her daughter to babysit her three younger siblings, ages 9, 19 months and 7 months, all summer. "And she was a good babysitter."

"We were getting ready to sign her up for classes at OCC (Ocean County College)," Crystal said. Belle was going to take part in the OCC Jump Start program, open to high school juniors and seniors throughout the county.

Sometime Sunday, however, the teenager took off.

"She probably hates me because we're strict," Crystal said.

"She was a homebody. She didn't sleep out much. She doesn't come home drunk. She doesn't come home high," her mother said.

"Her big thing was social media, but the people she was meeting (online) weren't from around here."

And that's what has the Toms River mother concerned.

The family, which has a Facebook page dedicated to finding Belle, has received tips from a number of places, but the last confirmed sighting of Belle was Monday at a CVS in the Kendall Park section of South Brunswick.

"I've seen her on the surveillance video," Crystal said.

Belle is 5-foot-4 and weighs about 140 pounds. She is naturally blonde, and while she has colored her hair in the past, in recent months the reddish color had lightened due to the effects of the sun, Crystal said.

"So her hair is lighter than in the pictures we have," Crystal said.

While the family has heard that Belle may be with an older boy or a man, the reports of sightings have been of her by herself, Crystal said. Belle often wears earbuds, but she does not have her phone turned on, her mother said.

"People think I am in denial (about potential drug issues) but I know she wasn't doing that," Crystal said. "I've had people tell me she refused (to take) them."

Crystal said her biggest worry is that Belle may gotten herself into a situation she did not anticipate.

"There are just too many possibilities," she said. "I have been frantic. My adrenaline is going, and I jump every time the phone rings."

"We just want her to come home," Crystal said.

Anyone with information about Belle's whereabouts is asked to call Crystal at 732-674-2802 or Matt at 732-998-3474.

Belle Lavender photo courtesy of her mother, Crystal Mazur