Kada Scott’s family holds on to hope as detectives chase down dozens of leads into where she might be

Nearly two weeks since Kada Scott went missing, her family is holding on to hope — fragile now, but still alive — that they will soon be reunited.

“We raised Kada,” her father Kevin Scott said Friday, his voice steady, but tired. “She’s a strong, beautiful young woman. ...She’s going to make her way out of it. I’m confident, I’m still hopeful that she’s OK.”

But each day without her, he said, that confidence frays, and his greatest fear begins to creep in.

The detectives searching for her share that unease. As of Friday, they were still pursuing leads — following dozens of tips that continue to come in from a public moved to help in what District Attorney Larry Krasner called a “remarkable, unusual, and extraordinary” way.

The man police say abducted Scott — Keon King, 21 — has not been cooperative, according to law enforcement sources who asked not to be identified to discuss the ongoing case. And as investigators press on, more women have stepped forward, accusing King of violence and abuse, Krasner said, declining to share specifics.

» READ MORE: Philly DA’s Office says it was a mistake to withdraw earlier kidnapping case against the man charged with abducting Kada Scott

Taken together, the voices of Scott’s father and those of investigators paint a picture of a search growing more desperate by the day — one that’s stretched from Chestnut Hill to Southwest and Northwest Philadelphia, as detectives traced her last messages, combed through hours of surveillance footage, and followed a digital breadcrumb trail that led them to a suspect.

As day 14 nears, hope hangs in the balance.

Scott grew up in the Mount Airy section of Philadelphia and graduated from Pennsylvania State University last year with a degree in communications, her father said in an interview at his North Philadelphia home. She’s a vibrant and social young woman who loves music, he said — Rihanna, Jay-Z, and Michael Jackson oldies.

She was interested in finding a job in fashion, he said, but when she moved home to Philly, she struggled to find one. In the interim, she started working as a community nursing assistant, and, about a month ago, got a full-time job working the overnight shift at The Terrace, a nursing home in Chestnut Hill.

When Scott didn’t come home Oct. 5 after her shift, her family immediately grew worried. They reached out to her managers at work, but they had few answers, her father said, and there were no surveillance videos inside or outside of the facility.

They called the police that night, and investigators later learned that around 10 p.m. on Oct. 4, not long after Scott began her shift, she walked outside — and never came back.

Her mother’s car was still parked outside. Her phone had been turned off.

Investigators with the police department’s Northwest Detectives division initially handled the search, pulling surveillance video and honing in on the people Scott had been in touch with before she disappeared.

They found that she had been texting with a number linked to TextNow, a law enforcement source said, a messaging app that offers free texts and calls but that can be difficult to trace because users don’t need to provide real personal information.

According to the source, Scott and the person at that number discussed meeting outside the nursing home that night.

She told the person, identified over text as “Kel,” that she was outside and to call when they got to the corner, said the source.

That was the last message she sent, the source said. Moments later, her phone went dark.

Homicide detectives were called in to help with the investigation on Oct. 9, and that night, they searched a Southwest Philadelphia home associated with the number. They were led to a witness who knew the person behind the TextNow account only as “K,” the source said.

Detectives continued to pore over surveillance footage and, using the hundreds of license plate readers across the city, traced the route of a heavily tinted gold Toyota Camry that the likely suspect was driving, the source said.

But they still didn’t have a name.

Then, officials remembered that an earlier witness had recently been a passenger in an old Camry stopped by police. When they reviewed the officer’s body-worn camera footage, the source said, they saw the man behind the wheel: Keon King.

“K.”

All night Sunday and into Monday, police searched for King. After speaking with King’s mother, and then his lawyer, Shaka Johnson, he turned himself in Tuesday.

But where was Scott?

Over the last week, police have searched the grounds of several parks, including Awbury Arboretum, where King’s cell phone location data placed him on the night that Scott disappeared, according to another law enforcement source.

They found nothing that suggested Scott had been there. Then, on Wednesday, they received a tip that sent them to Ada H.H. Lewis Middle School, next to the arboretum. There, outside the vacant abandoned school building, they found Scott’s debit card and a pink phone and iPad case that may have belonged to her, a source said.

Shortly after, police located King’s Toyota Camry in the parking lot of an East Falls condominium.

That night, another tip led them to a stolen car that had been set ablaze days earlier at 74th and Ogontz Avenue — an area where King’s phone data placed him.

And as Friday came to a close, investigators searched for another car linked to King, holding onto hope that it holds the answers to her whereabouts.

Kevin Scott said he is trying to stay strong for the rest of his family. For nights after her disappearance, Kada Scott’s mother and 17-year-old sister were scared to stay in their Mount Airy home, because Kada’s keys went missing with her. The city paid to have the family’s locks replaced this week, he said.

They wait by their phones for updates from police, each alert a reminder of the uncertainty.

“I’m fearful for her and her life right now,” Kevin Scott said. “And I’m just hoping she’s OK.”