OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — A surveillance video shows a missing 18-year-old being forced into her car at a Target store where she had stopped for an errand over the weekend, police said.
Kelsey Smith, who graduated from high school less than two weeks ago, left the store Saturday evening and put packages into her car when someone ran toward her, police said.
Smith's car was found two hours later in the parking lot of a mall across the street.
Police were working to enhance the quality of that video, which has not been released because it is so poor, Detective Matthew Bregel said.
"We are moving on the assumption — because the prudent thing to do is to treat this as an abduction — that there was some kind of force involved," Overland Park Police Chief John Douglas said.
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Overland Park police did release another video of Smith walking into and out of Target and of a man they called a "person of interest," Detective Bob Miller said.
Police were pursuing more than 200 leads after releasing that video, Douglas said.
Police are not calling him the man in the video a suspect, but said he might have information that could be helpful to them.
More than 50 detectives and officers from the area and the Federal Bureau of Investigation were involved in the case, Douglas said.
Smith had been expected to attend a pool party with her boyfriend and then go to dinner to celebrate their six-month anniversary Saturday night.
About two hours after Smith disappeared, her grandparents found her gray 1987 Buick in the mall parking lot with her purse and packages still inside.
The teen's family is holding up "as well as can be expected," Miller said.
"I talked to the dad early this morning," he said. "They're starting to crumble a little bit because we're past the 48-hour window. He knows the urgency and the gravity of the situation now."
Smith's father, Greg Smith, has been in law enforcement for 16 years. He described his daughter as outgoing, with plans to be a veterinarian.
"From a cop standpoint, I understand everything that's going on," he said. "I know what some of the key things are, what the key time frames are. I try not to think about that."
Investigators said they don't know if Smith was picked at random or abducted by someone she knew. But Kelsey Smith's 23-year-old sister, Stevie Hockersmith, said she was sure her sister did not know the man police were seeking for questioning.
"He doesn't know what he's in for," Hockersmith said. "Honestly, she'll raise all hell."