PORT CLINTON, Ohio — Ten days after a Port Clinton teenager was last seen, police said they had no additional information to share about the case but that they are working "tirelessly" to bring the boy home.
Chief Rob Hickman said local, state and federal law enforcement are all working together on the investigation. He wouldn't say whether anyone was out actively searching on Monday or whether anyone had been to the boy's house that day.
Throughout downtown Port Clinton, missing posters hang in the windows of businesses, alerting people that 14-year-old Harley Dilly was last seen Dec. 20. One of those flyers also hangs on the fridge at Light House Sober Living on East 5th Street, next door to the home where Dilly and his family live.
"Just sadness, really," said Kenn Bower, Jr., the executive director of Light House Sober Living. "I mean, I’ve got children of my own and I couldn’t even imagine if any of them were missing, so I can’t even start to comprehend what the family could be going through. Especially in our small town, it’s pretty small around here and for him to literally disappear with no trace is pretty concerning."
Bower said the people who work at Light House, as well as the 15 men who live there, are on alert—just like many others in the community.
"We’ve been sharing it on Facebook, also have the flyer on our fridge," Bower said. "[We] let the police know that if there’s anything that we could do, that there’s a number of people that live here if they needed help with a search or anything else, or anything that we could do to be a part, that we’d help."
Although there was no new information to share on Monday, Chief Hickman asked anyone with information to contact Port Clinton police at 419-734-3121 or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678.
"I am asking our residents to continue to help by sharing flyers in person and on social media. Please allow the professionals involved in this case to continue to do their job," Hickman said. "We are working tirelessly and will continue to do so until Harley is brought home and reunited with his family."
For now, the people at Light House are keeping their porch lights on.
"The chief of police asked to keep the lights on our porches, so we’ve had them on ever since and don’t plan on turning them off," Bower said.
Though Bower said they had limited interaction with the family, they're hoping their neighbor comes home soon.
"I would think that if he walked in right now, everybody here would know exactly who he was," Bower said. "Not just from this [flyer], but from all of the media coverage and the Facebook and everything else, that if Harley walked in the doors, everybody here would know it."
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