Update 10/2/23, 7:30 p.m. ET:
Jace has been found, Jenelle shared in a TikTok video over the weekend. According to a police report obtained by The Ashley’s Reality Roundup on Monday, October 2, Jace told Barbara that he ran away due to alleged abuse from Eason.
“[Barbara] advised that she had spoken to [Jace] earlier in the evening when he called from an unknown number and told her about being assaulted by David Eason and that he ran away and was hiding,” the document stated. Us Weekly has reached out to Jenelle’s manager for comment.
Jenelle, for her part, wrote via X (formerly Twitter), “This isn’t about David whether you want to blame him or not,” and accused her mom of lying to police.
Original story continues below:
Teen Mom 2 alum Jenelle Evans’ son Jace has been reported missing for the third time in two months.
“The minor is still missing,” police said in a statement to The Sun on Friday, September 29. “There have been no updates.”
TMZ was first to report the news of the 14-year-old’s latest disappearance. Per the outlet, Evans, 31, told police that her eldest son snuck out of a window of their North Carolina home around 8 p.m. on Thursday, September 28. The teen reportedly does not have his cell phone with him.
Hours earlier on Thursday, Jenelle — who is also mom of 9-year-old son Kaiser, whom she shares with ex Nathan Griffith, and 6-year-old daughter Ensley, whom she shares with husband David Eason — shared a series of family photos via Instagram.
“Photo dump of our trip to the mountains for the kids #FallBreak 🍁🧡,” she captioned the pictures, which included a selfie with Jace.
Jace previously ran away twice in August — five months after Us Weekly broke the news that Evans had been granted custody of her eldest child in March. (Jenelle, who shares Jace with ex-boyfriend Andrew Lewis, previously signed over custody of Jace to her mom, Barbara Evans, when he was a baby.)
On August 14, Jace was reported missing after leaving school. He was found safe hours later.
“As a boy mom, kids can act up and rebel as I’m sure the majority of us all once did as kids too,” Jenelle told Us in a statement through her manager, August Keen. “Jace got in trouble at school, we decided to take his phone away and that’s when he decided to run off.”
Despite frequent drama with Eason, Jenelle insisted that Jace’s disappearance had “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.” She added: “This is a teenage boy being a teenager mad that we decided to take his phone away.”
Two weeks later, Jenelle grew concerned after Jace disappeared on their expansive property and called police. He was found at a gas station 10 minutes away from the family’s house.
“Jace was out roaming the property like he usually does. He went off to the gas station, without telling Jenelle,” Keen told Us in a statement on August 28. “Nothing to be alarmed about. Jace is a teenager finding his independence, wanting a bit more freedom, and Jenelle is a momma bear.”
Following the incidents, Jenelle — whose own struggles played out on MTV for years before she was fired in 2019 — clapped back at those who blamed her for her son’s multiple runaways.
“A lot of my son’s actions [are] being pinned against me and I’m getting a lot of hate, a lot of comments. … My son has been having a hard time for the past two, three years,” she shared on social media. “None of this has gone public because we’re trying to keep his privacy. Due to my son’s mental health, none of this is gonna be shared and I don’t want to really go into detail with anything.”
