Belleville teenager missing since leaving grandmother’s house with unknown man

The whereabouts of a Belleville teenager remain unknown after her sister first reported her missing Sunday.

According to Kirsten Apponey, her sister, Breeanna D. Rauschkolb, 17, entered an unknown vehicle with a man that evening. Apponey, a resident of Pocahontas, briefly heard from her sister earlier this week but not since.

“Who did she get into that car with?” Apponey said Thursday. “She called me either Monday or Tuesday — it’s been a blur, and I’m getting my days mixed up — just to basically say she was happy and that she’s not coming home.

“From what I could track, it looked like the area code was from downtown St. Louis, but, again, that’s been a couple days. I have heard nothing since.

“It was a very short phone call. It almost sounded like it was kind of rehearsed. I kept asking her questions to get something out of her voice and she gave me nothing.”

Apponey said her sister messaged a friend on Instagram, but that it was immediately deleted.

“A number of an old friend of hers messaged me that she (Rauschkolb) made a new Instagram account, but immediately the post and message — she said goodbye — was deleted as was the whole page,” Apponey said. “It was around the day she called me, but it’s all been taken off and is gone.”

Apponey said her sister has a history of communicating with men she had never met on the internet and that she’s worried Rauschkolb left with one of them. Apponey also said, since the call, all of Rauschkolb’s social media accounts have been deleted.

“Everything has been completely ghosted since then,” Apponey said.

The Belleville Police Department has not returned calls made Friday regarding Rausckolb’s disappearance.

Apponey said her sister, a recent graduate of Belleville West graduate, left her grandmother’s house on Brackett Street at approximately 10 p.m. Sunday with the unknown individual. After that, Apponey said the two went to Rauschkolb’s home on South 23rd Street, just a couple minutes from her grandmother’s house.

According to Apponey, Rauschkolb attempted to enter her bedroom, but that set off an alarm causing her and the other individual to flee before police arrived.

“They have sensors for certain areas of the home, but Breeanna didn’t know the sensors had been moved around just in fear of something like this happening,” Apponey said. “She didn’t know that, whenever she opened the bedroom window, the alarm system would go off.”

Since it was dark, getting a make of the vehicle or the license plate was near impossible, Apponey said.

“We think it was a black or darker colored SUV, but we’re not sure,” Apponey said. “We really don’t have a whole lot of anything to go off of.”

As stated, Apponey said her sister’s interactions with internet strangers is nothing new, noting Rauschkolb even had purchased a burner phone.

“That’s how I found out she’s been talking to multiple people,” Apponey said. “I’m just very scared. She’s very naive. My fear is this person, they don’t even know who she is and they’re not going to bring her back just to get a kidnapping charge.

“It’s all just a giant mess with no strong leads to go from.”

Apponey said Rauschkolb had been working at Dollar Tree at the Belleville Crossing shopping center. Rauschkolb’s employers have not heard from her either, she said.

According to Apponey, Rauschkolb is approximately 5-foot-2, weighs 140 pounds, has hazel eyes and “kind of has dirty blonde hair.” Apponey asked people to call her at 618-512-0634 with any information.

“It’s a giant mess and it all stems from online people she’s never met,” Apponey said. “I’m not sure if she’s living these fake fantasy worlds with these men and decided to take off with one of them.”

Apponey also posted this related message Tuesday on Facebook:

“Please please please educate the youth around you just how incredibly dangerous it is to speak with those they do not know on the internet. How quickly a grown man can manipulate a young female is sickening. Parents, stalk your children’s socials, know their passwords, check their conversations until they hate you for it. I wouldn’t wish this feeling of uncertainty on anyone.”