Can newly-surfaced video help find missing New Bedford teen Jalajhia Finklea?

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — On Tuesday, it will be exactly four weeks - one month - since anyone has seen missing New Bedford teenager Jalajhia Finklea.

Concern continues to grow for the 18-year-old’s safety. The man authorities say abducted her, Luis Barboza, was 20 years old than Jalajhia. He was killed during a confrontation with U.S. Marshals in Florida.

Over the weekend, volunteers searched a stretch of Route 140 in New Bedford where Jalajhia’s cellphone was recovered but found no trace of her.

Now, there’s a 2018 video of Jalajhia from Wareham Community TV that is revealing Jalajhia’s upbeat, bubbly personality.

In January 2018, Jalajhia was interviewed by WCTV’s Queen Banda and Wareham Week’s Lydia Goerner for a program called Meet Me At the Riverside. During the 10-minute video, Jalajhia talked about life as a freshman at Wareham High School and her dream of pursuing a singing career after graduation.

Jalajhia is 15-years-old in the video and she is brimming with enthusiasm for the future.

Now, nearly three years later, it is hoped the video might help jog a memory and bring Jalajhia home.

Jalajhia Finklea was last seen on Oct. 20 getting into Barboza’s car which was parked around the corner from her home in New Bedford. According to a police report, Jalajhia was five months pregnant at the time and was in the middle of a two-day procedure at a Boston clinic that she did not finish.

The clinic warned that Jalajhia’s life could be at risk if she did not get proper medical attention.

A half an hour after Jalajhia got into Barboza’s parked car, her cellphone was discarded on Route 140 in New Bedford. Jalajhia was never seen again. But, Barboza drove up and down the East Coast throughout the course of the week before his deadly confrontation with authorities.

Volunteers scoured that area of Route 140 and did not find Jalajhia.

The hope that someone might see the video and remember the pretty girl with the big smile and call New Bedford Police with information that could lead them to her.

Related stories: