The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation continues to seek the public’s help in finding a teenager missing from Middle Tennessee, and the agency is offering a $1,000 reward for information that leads to the capture of the teacher who is suspected of kidnapping her.

“Efforts to locate missing high school freshman Elizabeth Thomas remain active and ongoing as the concern about her relationship with former teacher Tad Cummins—and his intentions for her—only heighten the urgency surrounding this ongoing AMBER Alert in Tennessee and Alabama,” the TBI said Saturday.

Thomas, 15, disappeared on Monday, March 13, and she is believed to have been kidnapped by 50-year-old Tad Cummins, a former teacher at her school in Maury County, Tennessee, the TBI said. Cummins has been added to the state’s “Top 10 Most Wanted” list.

On Tuesday, the school district in Maury County terminated Cummins in the wake of an ongoing investigation into alleged inappropriate contact he had with Thomas at the school earlier this year, the TBI said.

Maury County is south of Nashville. [Read more…]