Officials plead for help in finding 13-year-old girl whose family was killed in tornado outbreak

Nyssa Brown remains unaccounted for. Her parents, grandmother and three siblings were all killed early Saturday morning.

Thursday, December 16, 2021

Children among 14 tornado victims on one KY street

Residents in a Bowling Green, Kentucky housing development are mourning the death of 14 of their neighbors -- including seven children -- who were killed when a tornado swept through last Friday.

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. -- Officials in Bowling Green, Kentucky, are pleading for the public's help in finding 13-year-old Nyssa Brown, who remains unaccounted for after last week's devastating tornado outbreak killed six members of her family.

The city has processed 244 missing person reports and accounted for everyone but the teenager.

"This isn't just another missing person, but rather this is our 13-year-old girl," Bowling Green Fire Chief Justin Brooks said at a press briefing Wednesday evening, as his police chief held a photo of the teenager behind him.

Bowling Green Fire Chief Justin Brooks speaks at a press briefing Wednesday as his police chief holds a photo of missing 13-year-old Nyssa Brown.
Bowling Green Police Department

Brooks said they will be expanding the search area and are calling upon to the public to assist with any information.

"One missing is one too many, and we need your help," he said.

MORE: Tornado-slammed parts of Kentucky face long recovery

The tornado outbreak Friday killed at least 88 people in five states. Seventy-four of them were in Kentucky.

Officials said 14 people died when a tornado touched down in Bowling Green early Saturday, 11 of them on a single street. Among those killed on Moss Creek Avenue were Nyssa's parents, 36-year-old Rachael Brown and 35-year-old Steven Brown, her grandmother, 64-year-old Victoria Smith, and her siblings, Nariah Cayshelle, 16, Nolynn, 8, and Nyles, 4.

"They were very family-oriented. They loved their family. They loved their kids," Rachael Brown's aunt, Dornicho Jackson McGee, told CNN.

Nyssa's three siblings were among seven children, two of them infants, who died in this friendly subdivision where neighbors say everyone waved at one another.

SEE ALSO: How to help tornado victims

Mercy Chefs deployed to Kentucky over the weekend, serving up warm meals to tornado victims and first responders.

Neighbor Melinda Allen-Ray described hearing screams just minutes after the destruction.

"I heard them -- it traumatized me. I think about that each night when I go to sleep, when I do sleep," she said. In her dreams, she hears the screaming and wakes up. She wept all weekend.

"I just think about all those babies," she said.

PHOTOS: Before and after images show destruction from Midwest tornado outbreak