{"id":76536,"date":"2025-12-01T09:16:52","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T09:16:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/76536\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T09:16:52","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T09:16:52","slug":"local-mother-fears-online-gaming-is-linked-to-her-sons-disappearance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/76536\/","title":{"rendered":"Local mother fears online gaming is linked to her son’s disappearance"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAS VEGAS (KSNV) \u2014 Sixteen-year-old Riley Monk has been missing since Nov. 15, when he was last seen leaving his mother’s house. <\/p>\n

His mother, Amber Monk, has been tirelessly searching for him and is now seeking the community’s help. <\/p>\n

“I really can’t believe he’s been gone this long,” she said. <\/p>\n

Amber has been looking for Riley for two weeks, expressing her disbelief and hope that he would return any minute. <\/p>\n

Riley is described as six feet tall and 240 pounds.<\/p>\n

“Everyone that gets to know him says he’s a gentle giant, very sweet,” Amber said. <\/p>\n

She believes Riley’s love for video games may have played a role in his disappearance, suspecting he was influenced by people he interacted with on gaming apps. <\/p>\n

MORE ON NEWS 3 | Vegas nonprofit aids cold case families with DNA testing, solving two local murders<\/a><\/p>\n

“For him to run away, it’s just very out of character for how he normally is, and that’s why I really feel like he was influenced by the people he was talking to on the gaming apps,” she said.<\/p>\n

The National Center for Missing and Endangered Children notes that runaways are the most common reports of missing children, with online platforms often playing a significant role. <\/p>\n

Amber fears Riley may have left under pretenses and is now unable to return. <\/p>\n

“I’m worried now he’s found himself in a position where he can’t come home, and that’s my biggest fear at this moment,” she said. <\/p>\n

Despite her fears, Amber remains hopeful. “I miss him so much, and I haven’t given up hope or faith that he’ll come home,” she said, adding that she continues to prepare for Christmas as they had planned.<\/p>\n

Amber urges other parents to be vigilant about their children’s online interactions as she searches for her son.<\/p>\n

The National Center for Missing and Endangered Children released a poster to share<\/a> in hopes of finding Riley.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS (KSNV) \u2014 Sixteen-year-old Riley Monk has been missing since Nov. 15, when he was last seen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76537,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":{"0":"post-76536","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bakersfield","8":"tag-bakersfield","9":"tag-bakersfield-headlines","10":"tag-bakersfield-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}