Timeka Donyale Pridgen

• Missing Since 05/12/2001
• Missing From La Grange, North Carolina
• Classification Endangered Missing
• Sex Female
• Race Black
• Date of Birth 09/08/1984 (39)
• Age 16 years old
• Height and Weight 5'7 - 5'10, 165 pounds
• Clothing/Jewelry Description A mint-green v-neck shirt, a knee-length mint-green skirt with a white flower print, a gold dolphin necklace and no shoes or socks.
• Distinguishing Characteristics African-American female. Brown hair, brown eyes. When she was last seen, Timeka had blonde or light brown highlights in her hair and braces on her teeth. Her ears are double-pierced. Her nickname is Meka.

Details of Disappearance

Timeka was last seen at 10:15 p.m. in the living room at her residence on South Street in La Grange, North Carolina on May 12, 2001. Her mother, Cosandra Best, was waiting for her boyfriend, Eric Earl Mercer Moore Sr., to come home.

Best spoke to Moore on the phone and he said he would be home in five minutes. She planned to break up with him that night. She fell asleep after their phone conversation and when she woke up at approximately midnight, and discovered her daughter was gone and Moore wasn't at the residence either.

Authorities initially classified Timeka as a runaway and believed she may have traveled to Goldsboro, North Carolina. However, they now think she may have been forced out of her home by someone after she let the person inside. She was barefoot at the time of her disappearance and left all her belongings behind, including her purse, money and shoes.

Moore is considered a person of interest in Timeka's disappearance. He had prior convictions for kidnapping, assault, theft and a sex crime, something Best didn't discover until after Timeka vanished. In 2006, he was convicted again of sexually assaulting a minor and sent to prison for a twelve-year sentence, then released again.

A photo of Moore is posted with this case summary. He died of natural causes in October 2023. He was never charged in connection with Timeka's case and stated he was never at the apartment the night she disappeared, but investigators believe he was the person responsible in her case. His cellular phone pinged at a tower near her home that night, Best was expecting him to come over, and both Best and Best's mother thought they heard his car outside the house that night.

Timeka's mother stated her daughter was a typical teenager in 2001 and enjoyed drawing, and that she had no reason to run away from home. Her case remains unsolved.