Six months and still no sign of Tennessee's Sebastian Rogers has the TikTok community rallying behind the FBI effort to find the missing teen by raising money to hang up billboards of the autistic teen nationwide.
The TikTokers leading the initiative are two users who go by @bbq_lady and @tammyyyee, and they've raised more than $22,000 for the billboards in hope of keeping the investigation behind the missing Sumner County teen alive.
It was when user @bbq_lady went live on the social platform that their combined effort garnered a ton more attention than they both expected.
"It was like a snowball effect. All of these large creators started coming in, and then their following started coming in, and then it just kept going from there," @Tammyyyee explained.
It reached so many people across the country that it prompted TikTok user Emily Crawford to match the donations received, according to WWMT.
"Missing kids hold a very special place in my heart because they need advocacy, and it falls on our shoulders to promote that," Crawford said.
@bbq_lady told the news outlet they've selected 104 billboards to go up around the nation to rally national awareness about Rogers.
"We did hand select these based on getting as much exposure in the most heavily trafficked patterns along the interstate," @bbq_lady revealed.
Further, she said, the billboards have the capability to make millions of impressions to raise awareness about what Rogers looks like, the fact that he's still missing, and that the FBI has offered a $50,000 reward.
"Somewhere, somebody has seen him and will maybe call that, and now that the FBI has actually added a reward, we're hoping that also that will trigger someone to make that phone call," added @Tammyyyee.
The TikTokers have given themselves a $1,000 budget per day, and should the teen be found sooner, they intend to donate the rest of the money to help other missing child cases.
Sebastian was last seen on February 25 when his mother put him to bed in their Hendersonville home.
The following morning, he was gone; his mother told police at the time.
Sebastian is 5-foot-5-inches tall, 120 lbs., with brown hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a black sweatshirt, black sweatpants, and glasses.
Anyone with information on his whereabouts is urged to contact the Sumner County Sheriff's Office at 615-451-3838 or the TBI at 1-800-TBI-FIND.
