Texas teen dies months after allegedly being lured by Snapchat 'predator'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Heaven Ray Cox, 15, was found safe Thursday, her mother said on Facebook.
Texas teen Heaven Ray Cox, who was reunited with her family in November after she was allegedly lured away by a “predator” on Snapchat, has died, her mother announced Tuesday.
A cause of death was not immediately released.
Cox, 15, died Saturday afternoon, her mother, Tammy Day Cox, posted on Facebook. Earlier in the day, Tammy Day asked people to “stop and pray” for her daughter.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“Our sweet Heaven left us to be with Jesus this afternoon around 4:00. Some bright lights are not meant for this dark and cruel world. ... Sing with the angels sweet girl. I love you,” she wrote Saturday.
She wrote Monday: “I know I've been quiet. ... I try to answer each text and post that I can, but it's not possible to answer them all. Thank you to everyone who has prayed for us and reached out to us in love. We appreciate you more than you know.”
Heaven Cox was reunited with her family Dec. 1 after she vanished Nov. 25 from her home in Orange County, Texas. Family members feared the girl was with an “internet predator” she'd met through Snapchat. They believed the person was a “much older” man in San Antonio.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Her mother, who gave regular updates during the disappearance, also revealed in November that Heaven suffered from “mental illness and is currently in a manic phase due to being off her medication.”
Heaven Cox was found in Louisiana on Nov. 30 at a house that belonged to a relative of a person she knew, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement at the time. Police also said it appeared Cox ran away on her own.
Authorities never confirmed if a Snapchat “predator” had been involved in Cox’s disappearance.