Wilyuana Hollingsworth was a 16-year-old Black female when she was last seen in Knoxville, Tennessee, on September 29, 2022. She was described as approximately 5 feet 2 inches tall and weighing about 120 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. According to the publicly available NamUs record, Wilyuana’s mother last saw her at approximately 9:00 that evening after picking her up from her job at the Ingles grocery store at 215 Cedar Lane.
The Knoxville Police Department received the missing-person report the following day and investigated the disappearance under agency case number 22-036408, while the case was also entered into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System as MP96986.
As concern for Wilyuana grew, East Tennessee Valley Crime Stoppers shared an appeal intended to reach people who might know where she was staying. Her mother believed she might have been with friends whose parents were unaware that she had been reported missing. The public notice identified Wilyuana as a Fulton High School student and suggested that she might have altered her appearance by dyeing the front portion of her hair blonde. Friends, classmates, parents, and others connected to the school community were encouraged to circulate her information so that someone with direct knowledge of her whereabouts might come forward. Although the original appeal referred to the possibility that she had left home voluntarily, Wilyuana was still a minor, and confirming her safety remained the central concern of her family, investigators, and the community members who shared her photograph and identifying information.
For a considerable period, the public record provided very little information about what happened after Wilyuana’s mother brought her home from work. No detailed account of her subsequent movements, destination, transportation, companions, or communications was released, leaving a painful gap between her last confirmed contact and the eventual resolution of the search. The limited timeline meant that the investigation relied heavily on information from people who knew Wilyuana, may have spoken with her, or may have allowed her to stay with them without understanding that authorities and her family were trying to locate her. The absence of extensive public details should not be interpreted as an absence of investigative work; missing-juvenile cases often require authorities to balance public appeals with the privacy and safety of the young person involved.
East Tennessee Valley Crime Stoppers later announced that Wilyuana had been located and was safe, bringing the active search for her to a welcome conclusion. The public update did not provide a detailed explanation of where she had been, how she was found, or the circumstances surrounding her time away, and those private details were not necessary to share in order to communicate the most important outcome: she was alive and safe. Wilyuana Hollingsworth’s case began with the disappearance of a 16-year-old girl after her last known contact in Knoxville on September 29, 2022, continued through appeals directed toward her friends and school community, and ultimately ended with official confirmation that she had been found safely.Last Seen: Sep 29, 2022
