Identical Malibu twins missing

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Identical twins Mary (left) and Morgan Corrodi, 16, have been missing since Sunday.

Lack of information adds to mystery of two missing Malibu teens.

By Olivia Damavandi / Special to The Malibu Times

Malibu resident Jack Corrodi filed a report of his missing, identical twin daughters with the Malibu / Lost Hills Sheriff Station on Sunday afternoon, after having no knowledge of their whereabouts besides a vague observation from a next door neighbor.

Sixteen-year-old Mary and Morgan Corrodi, special education students at Malibu High School, were last seen around 3 p.m. on Sunday afternoon by a neighbor who allegedly witnessed them leave their house in a vehicle, the make and model of which the neighbor cannot recall, of an unknown person. Corrodi told The Malibu Times he was lied to by the girls, who said they were attending a beach event chaperoned by the Boys and Girls Club of Malibu.

“I am concerned that they met someone at the beach on Saturday and arranged to meet them on Sunday, too,” Corrodi said. “They [Mary and Morgan] tend to try to act older than they really are. They look 18 or 20, but act like they’re 12,” he added.

The Sheriff’s report classifies Mary and Morgan as juvenile runaways, a broad term used to define an individual under the age of 18 whose location cannot be determined, said Deputy Scott Rule of the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff Department Juvenile Intervention team. When asked which types of incidences have prompted juveniles to runaway in the past, Rule said, “Some of them don’t like following house rules, from being grounded to not going out. It could be drug use that parents aren’t aware of, or kids just being kids, wanting to go to a party against their parents’ wishes. They could be out at the beach and just don’t want to come home. It all depends.”

Rule also said that juveniles sometimes mistakenly think their parents know where they are and assume that checking in with them is not necessary.

The classification of a juvenile runaway is derived from the absence of evidence that could prove the missing person as a victim of abduction. In Mary and Morgan’s case, Rule said there is no indication of foul play at the present time, but that the case will get more serious the longer they are missing. The initial step of locating a missing juvenile is to spread awareness of the problem.

“We start by talking with family and trying to get information from friends,” Rule said. “We start putting the word out that we’re looking … spreading the word out to the community, which is probably part of the reason Mr. Corrodi wanted the issue publicized in The Malibu Times.”

A major aspect hindering the ability to contact or locate the Corrodi teenagers is school not yet being in session, Rule said.

“If it was, it would be easy,” he said. “We’d just go to [Malibu High] school and find out who their friends are, make a list and call them.”

Contacting friends of Mary and Morgan has not been easy, Rule said, but Corrodi and his wife, Kay, are doing all they can to gather potential sources that could provide information on their daughters’ whereabouts.

Rule advised the Corrodis to monitor the Internet, possible credit card charges, cell phone usage and ATM activity, but Jack Corrodi said he only reached an answering machine when trying to call either daughter, unable to distinguish whether their cell phones are out of battery or cannot receive reception.

Though it’s in the investigative stage, all patrol cars in Malibu are aware of their absence and have a picture of the girls in their police cars for identification verification purposes.

Rule also mentioned that runaways are not necessarily always juveniles.

“We have gotten a report of a mother who couldn’t find her adult son, so she reported him as runaway so that police officers would be on the lookout,” he said. “It turned out that he just went out of town, but the parent was doing her parental obligation. As a parent, you have an obligation and you have to make sure your kids are where they are supposed to be.”

The Corrodi family and Juvenile Intervention team will continue to try to locate Mary and Morgan.

Both sources have asked anyone with any information to contact them. Jack Corrodi can be reached at 310.456.2584, and the Juvenile Intervention team can be reached at 310.456.6652.