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Wrestling Coach Accused of Running Off With 16-Year-Old Girl As Cops Launch Manhunt
Philip Maglaya, 25, and the teenage girl have been missing since Wednesday, police said.
California cops are launching a manhunt for a high school wrestling coach they say has vanished with a 16-year-old girl, officials said.
Philip Maglaya, a coach at Franklin High School in Stockton, is believed to be traveling with the teen, who police say ran off with Maglaya last week when cops learned that the two were involved in a “romantic relationship,” according to statements from the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office and the Stockton Unified School District.
The pair vanished Wednesday, and are believed to be traveling in Maglaya’s green 1994 Toyota pickup truck, with license plate number 8G91493, similar to the one pictured above, officials said.
Maglaya, 25, had worked at Franklin High School as an unpaid volunteer for several weeks last winter, and did not intend to return to the school this year, according to a spokeswoman for the Stockton Unified School District.
Maglaya had managed to pass background checks in order to work at the school, officials said.
“The Stockton Unified School District is working closely with law enforcement to find a missing 16-year-old student,” a spokeswoman for the district wrote in a statement. “The student was reported missing by her family last Wednesday. The San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Department is in charge of this case and the district will not be discussing the student.”
A spokeswoman for the school district told Oxygen.com that officials are not currently sure how Maglaya and the student met.
Police ask that anyone with information of the whereabouts of Maglaya and the teenage girl call the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office at (209) 468-4400, the Investigations Unit at (209) 468-4425, or submit tips by texting ‘Crimes’ (274637) and typing the first keyword SJSO followed by a space, then the tip.
