A photograph of missing teenager Kara Nichols has appeared on a Las Vegas escort website.
The picture of the 19-year-old aspiring model appeared on MyRedBook.com but police said the photograph was taken from another source and that Miss Nichols did not post it.
The ad promised that the girl pictured was the actual escort.
But when officers called an accompanying phone number, members of Miss Nichol’s family confirmed it was not her voice on the other end of the phone.
Police leading the search for the model said that claims she was in LA were untrue.
El Paso County Sheriff’s Detective Cliff Porter told Fox News that escorts and prostitutes often use random pictures lifted from the Internet to advertise online.
He said: ‘We have no evidence that supports the claim that she’s in Las Vegas.’
She went missing after leaving her Colorado Springs home on October 9 and was last seen with a brown-haired woman who detectives believe may have information about the young woman’s whereabouts.
El Paso County Sheriff’s Office previously called the case suspicious and said that Miss Nichols may have been exploited by an individual or group claiming they could further her modeling career.
Police are thought to have interviewed one woman who traveled with Miss Nichols but have not have not released her name. They are still looking for second woman.
Even if this young lady has no information, just the simple fact that she could tell us how they parted, what her parting words might have been, could be huge,’ Detective Cliff Porter previously told ABC News.
Police are also seeking a second brunette who they said associated with Nichols, however they would not elaborate on the nature of their relationship or frequency of their contact.
Miss Nichols told her roommate she might go to Denver on the day she vanished but left behind her purse.
Friends and family said the woman was active on social media and regularly used her cell phone, but neither have been used since she went missing.
All of a sudden that stopped — no communication since then, especially from a person who was an extrovert, who was always reaching out to people,’ Sheriff Terry Maketa said, adding that this made the case ‘more concerning’.
According to ABC News, images of the unnamed brunette released yesterday have resulted in numerous leads and the El Paso Sheriff’s Office has recruited the help of external investigators to help with the case.
‘Tuesday’s press conference has resulted in a number of valuable leads, and we are working tirelessly to follow up on these leads. They are labor and manpower intensive, and we have called on other units to assist us,’ Detective Porter told the station.
Police said there was a strong possibility Ms Nichols was targeted by an organized group designed to exploit wanna-be models.
‘These aspirations, we believe, have caused Kara to fall prey to a subculture of modeling-business fronts that many times involve illicit drugs and prostitution,’ Sheriff Maketa said. This subculture could have exploited a teenage girl who may have lacked the life experience to see the inherent risks.’
The 19-year-old lingerie model disappeared more than a month ago on her way to work.
Police searching for the missing teen said the young woman never made it to her job, and added that it was ‘really uncharacteristic’ of her not to get in touch with family and friends.
There has been no trace of Ms Nichols since she made a call from her mobile phone at 11.45pm on the day she vanished.
‘What causes us concern is that it is really uncharacteristic of her not to be in contact with her friends and family,’ Sergeant Joe Roybal, from the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office said earlier this month.
Officers’ attempts to reach Ms Nichols on her phone or to establish the phone’s location have proved unsuccessful.
The teenager’s devastated family have set the ‘Help Us Find Kara Nichols’ Facebook page and teamed up with the National Women’s Coalition Against Violence and Exploitation to raise awareness of her mysterious disappearance.
Friend Rachel Buster told KKTV News she was ‘very scared’ for the 5ft 8in 19-year-old, who is understood to have taken up underwear modeling in February of this year.
Her Model Mayhem profile says that, while she is new to the profession, she is ‘very passionate’ about modeling.
‘Currently I’m working on building my portfolio so I’m always looking for modeling opportunities in my area,’ it reads.
‘I’ve done mostly lingerie shoots so far but I’m extremely open-minded.’
Sgt Roybal earlier said there was nothing to indicate that a crime had been committed or any evidence of foul play though they are now calling the disappearance suspicious.
‘We really don’t have any indication as to why she hasn’t been in contact,’ he said.
‘The only thing that concerns us is that she has not been in contact with anybody.’
The officer said police want to raise awareness of the case in the hope that somebody might come forward with information on the whereabouts of the teenager.
‘We’re hoping for a best case scenario,’ he added.
Ms Nichols is 5 ft 8 ins tall and weighs 120 lbs. She has blonde hair and green eyes, and tattoos on her wrist and ankle.
