CONWAY, Ark – Family is increasing the reward to help bring a missing Conway teen home.
The Marupally’s say they are offering $25,000 for the safe return of their daughter Tanvi Marupally.
This week, the teenager celebrated her 15th birthday. As a tribute, the Conway Community planted a tree outside the Faulkner County Library Sunday.
“We didn’t want Tanvi’s birthday to go by without some sort of celebration,” Jenny Wallace who is helping search for the missing teen said.
The last few months have been anything but easy for family and friends as they search for a teen they said vanished into thin air.
“The community has been what I think has helped keep this family upright,” Wallace said.
“Having all these people pushing this out through social media, even from their own homes, it just expands the knowledge and awareness of Tanvi,” Loren Brooks who is also helping search for Tanvi said.
Before Sunday’s tree planting ceremony, family shared a video of the teen, taken just moments before she disappeared.
For people who have been searching for weeks, they say it was just the motivation they needed to keep pushing forward.
“You see the flyers and you see her pictures but then to hear it and see her in live action, I think it just created a connection for anybody,” Brooks said.
As the days pass, the community stays hopeful.
“That’s our hope that not one more day has to go by with us worrying if she is safe and if she is ok,” Wallace said.
Until then, a memory stands, keeping Tanvi in Conway. The place she called home.
Anyone with any information on the teen is asked to call the Conway Police Department.