On a Friday evening in late May, the mother of an Ohio State basketball player grabbed her purse and keys and headed into the night.
“I didn’t know where I was going,” she said, “but I knew I needed to find my child.”
Melissa Smitherman learned her son might be in danger minutes earlier when she received a disturbing phone call. A friend spotted Seth Towns among the protesters standing their ground against police orders during a Black Lives Matter rally in Columbus.
When Smitherman FaceTimed her son to check on him, an unfamiliar man answered her call.