Update, Aug. 15, 7:30 p.m. ET: Jenelle Evans’ son Jace is now safe. According to law enforcement and Evans’ team, he has been found after going missing on Tuesday afternoon in North Carolina. The former Teen Mom 2 cast member’s manager August Keen told TMZ, “Jace has been found, and is safely at home with Jenelle and his family, thank you to the Brunswick Co. Sheriff’s Department and to everyone else for their concerns.”
Original Story: Jenelle Evans, a former cast member on MTV’s Teen Mom 2, has spoken out about her 14-year-old son Jace, who is currently missing in North Carolina. Evans claims the teen, who was also featured on the reality TV show for many years, “decided to run off” after she and husband David Eason (Jace’s stepfather) confiscated his cell phone. She does not believe her public social media posts about her and Eason’s marriage troubles contributed to Jace’s decision to run away from home.
Videos by PopCulture.com
“As a boy mom, kids can act up and rebel as I’m sure the majority of us all once did as kids too,” Evans told TMZ. “Jace, got in trouble at school, we decided to take his phone away and that’s when he decided to run off, Jace is a good kid and we’re not dealing with anything that most families don’t deal with while raising children, this has absolutely nothing to do with my situation with David, we do not argue in front of our children or fight in front of our kids. This is a teenage boy being a teenager mad that we decided to take his phone away.”
If you have any information about Jace’s whereabouts, please contact 911 or the Brunswick County Sheriff’s Department in North Carolina at (910) 253-2777 or toll-free at (800) 672-6379. More contact information on how to contact the department can be found on its official website.
Jace was last seen at 2:45 p.m. local Tuesday, leaving his school in Brunswick County. He was wearing a gray sweatshirt that featured the words “Classical Charter Schools of America” written on it. If he has taken off the sweatshirt, he was also wearing a navy shirt underneath it.
In an Instagram post, Eason revealed that police are searching a nearby wooden area for Jace, while he has been instructed to head back home in the event that Jace opts to return on his own accord. Eason noted that Jace apparently fled from him and the school principal when this whole situation began. Evans’ husband also took aim at Teen Mom fans and his mother-in-law Barbara for commenting on the situation when they are not directly involved.
Barbara had spoken to TMZ, noting that she had talked to Jace on Monday night and everything seemed fine. The grandmother had also alluded to Jenelle’s marital issues when talking to TMZ, noting she had tried to contact Jenelle earlier in the day on Tuesday to discuss the issues. However, the mother of three did not wish to discuss the situation with Barbara.
Jenelle Evans, who first appeared on 16 and Pregnant, and her mom had fought over custody of Jace for years, with Barbara serving as Jace’s primary guardian for around a decade. Jenelle finally regained full custody of Jace in March of this year. Jace’s father is Evans’ ex, Andrew Lewis. Lewis is not believed to have any sort of relationship with Jace.
Evans is also the mother of two more children: son Kaiser (with her ex Nathan Griffith) and daughter Ensley (with Eason). Eason is also the father of a teenage daughter, Maryssa. MTV severed the family’s ties with the Teen Mom franchise when Eason killed a pet dog in 2019, an incident of animal cruelty that sparked intense public backlash. However, Evans did go on to make a brief cameo in Teen Mom: The Next Chapter in 2022.
