Grandmother pleading for help in February disappearance of missing Missouri teen T’Montez Hurt

Dateline / NBC News
Kyani Reid
April 10, 2024

“I just want my grandson,” Tecona Donald-Sullivan told Dateline. “I just want him home safe.”

Tecona’s grandson, T’Montez Hurt, has been missing for two months. The 19-year-old was last seen on February 1, 2024, in Kansas City, Missouri.

“This is getting too weird,” she said.

Tecona told Dateline that their family is from St. Louis. She said her grandson was born in St. Louis and later moved to Nashville, Tennessee. “His mom moved out of town to Nashville to better her life,” she said. “T’Montez would come back every summer and holidays and stay with me.”

Tecona said that when tragedy struck in 2017, T’Montez came back to St. Louis to stay with her for a bit. “His dad was killed, and it was really hard for me because I witnessed it,” she said of her son’s death. “I was suffering with PTSD. I sent him back to Tennessee and I explained to him I wasn’t doing it because of anything he had did.”

T’Montez didn’t stay away from Missouri long. Tecona said after he graduated high school in 2023, he decided to move back for college. “He wanted to come, and he had the desire to play ball. He’s very talented. I think he’s just born with it because his dad was the same way — something magical happened when they put that ball in their hand,” Tecona said. “He had the potential to be whatever he wanted to be.”

T’Montez started attending Western Missouri University in the fall of 2023. However, Tecona said, he couldn’t afford to go back in the spring, so he decided to take a semester off to save up money to go back.

By February 2024, T’Montez was living and working in Grain Valley, Missouri. “He got him a little job at Price Chopper,” Tecona said. “He was talking like, ‘I’m going to take this opportunity, and I’m going to work.’”

Tecona said that around 3 a.m. on February 1, she got a strange call from her grandson. He said he was at an apartment in Kansas City, Missouri. “He didn’t seem like himself,” she said. “He says, ‘Granny, just pray for me. Pray for me.’”

She said T’Montez told her he thought he may have been drugged. Tecona said she continued her conversation with T’Montez, but also called 911.

“911 dispatched to where T’Montez was,” she said. “We were still on the phone. The police ended up there.”

Tecona told Dateline T’Montez was then taken to the hospital. “He probably makes it to the hospital somewhere around 5 something a.m.,” she recalled.

Tecona said she spoke to a nurse at the hospital who conducted a urine test on T’Montez — but nothing came back as being in his system. “They said, well, they gotta discharge him,” Tecona said. But Tecona wanted T’Montez to stay at the hospital because when she spoke to him while he was there, he was still acting strange. “I said, ‘Well, can you keep him there until I get there?’ She said, ‘No, we gotta discharge him.’”

Tecona told Dateline that the hospital told her that they could call a cab for T’Montez. She said she asked if the cab could take him to the Greyhound bus station so he could get to St. Louis, where she lives.

“I said to T’Montez, ‘So, Granny got to get off the phone because Granny got to book your ticket,’” she remembered. “When I hung up, that was the last time that I’ve ever spoken to my grandson.”

Tecona told Dateline she tried calling T’Montez back several times but never got a response.

She reported him missing.

The Kansas City Missouri Police Department is investigating T’Montez’s case. Their Public Information Office told Dateline to refer to their social media pages for information on his disappearance. According to their post on X, T’Montez was last seen on February 1, 2024, “in the area of 12th & Troost Ave around 11:40 a.m.,” and was “believed to be walking in the area of 77th St & Troost at 1:30 p.m. in Kansas City, Missouri.”

According to Tecona, security footage showed T’Montez walking in the area of the Greyhound bus station. She said the station was closed when the cab, a zTrip ride service car, dropped him off. “He checks the door, then goes back to the zTrip to try to get back in. He cannot get in,” Tecona said. The driver “never opened the door, never tried to let T’Montez in.” Tecona said her grandson had left his phone in the car, which she later picked up at the zTrip station.

Tecona said that same day, she made it down to Kansas City and immediately began searching for her grandson. “I went to homeless [camps], I’ve been in trash cans,” she said. “I went and caught the buses and rode over in Kansas looking for my grandson.”

T’Montez’s mother and family in Nashville made their way to St. Louis to help with the search. “This lady is disheartened,” Tecona said about T’Motenz’s mother. “She’s riding around Kansas City on one side and I’m on the other side.”

Tecona told Dateline that she hopes that T’Montez’s case can get the same attention as Riley Strain’s did. Strain was a 22-year-old who vanished in March after leaving a bar in downtown Nashville. His body was found in a Nashville river two weeks later. “Riley got a whole billboard. Why T’Montez’s face isn’t up on a billboard?” Tecona said.

She also expressed disappointment in the Kansas City Missouri Police Department. “I ain’t seen them searching,” she said.

The Kansas City, Missouri Police Department’s Public Information Office told Dateline in an email that, T’Montez’s case “is an active and ongoing investigation” and did not respond to specific questions about the investigation. They did say “detectives will continue to follow all leads as they come.”

Tecona said she just wants her grandson to come home. “Granny is still looking for you,” she said.

T’Montez is 6’1” and 160 lbs. He was last seen wearing a royal blue Price Chopper polo shirt and green sweatpants.

Anyone with information on T’Montez’s whereabouts is asked to call the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department Missing Persons Unit at 816-234-5043.

Photo credit: Tecona-Donald Sullivan