{"id":159122,"date":"2026-02-18T00:33:24","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T00:33:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/159122\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T00:33:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T00:33:24","slug":"17-year-old-girl-reported-missing-in-lake-county-may-be-in-orlando-deputies-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/159122\/","title":{"rendered":"17-year-old girl reported missing in Lake County may be in Orlando, deputies say"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Lake County Sheriff\u2019s Office is requesting public assistance to locate 17-year-old Leticia Garcia, who was reported missing early Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Garcia was last seen at approximately 1:22 a.m. on Feb. 17, 2026, leaving her residence in the Clermont area.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">According to investigators, Garcia willingly entered a black Toyota Camry with Florida license plate 36FCBC.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The vehicle made several U-turns on State Road 50 before traveling east toward Orlando.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Authorities believe Garcia may be trying to reach a friend named Desi who resides in the Orlando area, though her exact destination is unknown.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Garcia is described as a Hispanic female with brown hair and brown eyes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">She stands five feet two inches tall and weighs approximately 110 pounds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">At the time she was last seen, Garcia was wearing a black hoodie and black sweatpants.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of Garcia is asked to contact Lake County Sheriff\u2019s Office Detective Norcross at 352-343-9500.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Tips can also be emailed to Tips@lcso.org or provided anonymously through CRIMELINE at one-800-423-8477.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/mobile-apps\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Click here;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Click here<\/a> to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/video\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:click here;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">click here<\/a> to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.<\/p>\n<p><a data-ylk=\"ct:story;elm:img;itc:0;\" class=\"stretched-box\" href=\"https:\/\/wftvapps.com\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"537\" height=\"108\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/beda08358d6db9816e7b0d066edd22cf.jpeg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Lake County Sheriff\u2019s Office is requesting public assistance to locate 17-year-old Leticia Garcia, who was reported missing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[76027,139,33234,141,140],"class_list":["post-159122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-leticia-garcia","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-area","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}