A few months ago, 21-year-old Kennedy Blackwell was attending the University of Colorado in Boulder, double-majoring in environmental science and ecology, and playing alternative music on her Friday drive-time show on a campus radio station. But since Nov. 3, her family says she’s been a missing person in the Long Beach area.

Kennedy’s mom, Sabrina Blackwell, said she was last seen wearing a powder-blue-and-white, tie-dye hoodie; light blue sweat pants; and black Crocs. That’s when she was reportedly seen while purchasing candy outside the Aquarium of the Pacific this weekend, but that fleeting encounter left her loved ones still searching.

Since last week her family, friends and community members have fanned out across the city doing daily searches. Sabrina said that she’s found it easier to utilize electric scooters to get around while looking for Kennedy because she’s able to maneuver easier than being in a car.

“I just feel like she’s going to show up,” Sabrina said, speaking from a parking space near The Pike Outlets Wednesday afternoon.

Sabrina said that her daughter may be presenting as manic and possibly talking to herself because she is not on her medication, but Sabrina emphasized Kennedy is not dangerous. The family wants anyone who sees Kennedy to call Signal Hill police, who are the lead investigative agency, at 562-989-7201.

Sabrina said Kennedy had moved home from Boulder to Palos Verdes a few months ago to take a break from school. Kennedy, who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, was admitted to a local hospital at the end of last month to begin treatment for her bipolar disorder diagnosis but she left a few days later.

Sabrina and her husband followed Kennedy as she walked the streets of Signal Hill and Long Beach for hours before the Signal Hill Police Department was called to help negotiate her staying overnight at the Quality Inn on Pacific Coast Highway and Obispo Avenue.

“I went back the next day and she was gone,” Sabrina said.

She filed a missing person’s report the next day and started handing out flyers and doing grid searches across the city, sometimes lasting as many as seven hours at a time.

Sabrina said that she believed that Kennedy had been stopped by Long Beach Police Department officers on Sunday because Kennedy’s name was run through the police department’s system, but a spokesperson for SHPD said that was a misunderstanding.

“Usually that implies that they did contact somebody, but they [LBPD] actually saw a flier that the parents had put out and they happened to run the name,” Lt. Kelli Crigler said Wednesday.
 Crigler said that SHPD did not put out a missing person’s bulletin because Kennedy is 21 and is considered voluntarily missing.

“She has the right to go home or not,” Crigler said.

LBPD spokesperson Brandon Fahey said that the department has a list of criteria it considers before posting a bulletin including if the person is a child, mentally impaired, in need of medication or if they’re a suspected victim of a crime.

But in this case, Fahey said the department would have deferred to Signal Hill to post the bulletin since the initial report was filed with that department.

Sabrina said that she’s hopeful to find her daughter soon so she can begin the road to treatment and continue her education. Kennedy is just 32 units short of graduating.

While searching for her earlier this week Sabrina thought she saw Kennedy and got out of the car and darted through moving traffic only to find it was another woman wearing similar clothing. When Kennedy is found, it will be a feeling of elation and relief, Sabrina said.

“She had her whole world ahead of her and unfortunately something happened,” Sabrina said. “We’re just trying to get her back and help her get back to a happy and joyous state.”

Jason Ruiz covers City Hall and politics for the Long Beach Post. Reach him at [email protected] or @JasonRuiz_LB on Twitter.