A mother made a heartbreaking plea to her son from thousands of miles away. She's asking for him to return to her after police said he was deserted by his father, who's now behind bars.
"I love you and your sister would really love to see you."
It was a mother's plea, from the other side of the planet, begging her missing son, 16-year-old Aage Jorgensen, to seek help and go home.
Nestralda Jorgensen lives in Palau, a small Pacific Island nation near the Philippines, and sent a video message for her son to Plantation Police.
"Aage, this is mommy. Please be good and don't hide. If you're still there, come and call the police. Don't hide, be good and come out," Nestralda said in her message.
"It's gut-wrenching. I'm glad to see it though because I hope maybe Aage will see that and know that he's loved and wanted and come out of hiding," said Principal Elise Blum, American Heritage School.
Principal Blum said Aage was a well-liked student at American Heritage, an elite prep school in Plantation. He lived with his dad in the upscale Hawk's Landing neighborhood until he disappeared on Dec. 27.
Local
"My son is here somewhere in this jurisdiction. You couldn't pry me away with a crow bar," said Bruce Jorgensen, Aage's father, from bond court.
Bruce was arrested and charged with deserting his child. Police caught him at the airport as he was about to fly to New Zealand.
Detectives said the boy ran away after an argument with dad, and that Bruce never filed a missing person's report.
"This prosecution for some reason has tried to vilify me," Bruce said in court.
Glenn Roderman is Bruce's lawyer. When NBC 6 asked him why Bruce didn't contact police to report his son missing and was uncooperative, he said, "I think their investigation is shoddy. What happened is, he probably tried to take it upon himself to find the kid because it's happened so many times before. Would I have done that? Would you have done that as a parent? Probably not, but is that illegal?"
Roderman also said reports of Bruce buying a one-way ticket to New Zealand are false, and said it was a round-trip plan. He said he often goes there on business. When he planned to leave, Roderman said Bruce left money and the house keys inside the car in case Aage came home
Aage has a history of running away and in one instance, he was missing for almost three months.
Anyone with information on his whereabouts is urged to contact Plantation Police at (954) 797-2118.
