Mother of missing St. Pete teen to face daughter’s killer in court, hopes he leads officials to her body

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - St. Petersburg police are still looking for a pregnant teen who disappeared in 2012 after a recent search in Alabama did not lead to the girl's remains.   

Detectives with St. Pete Police traveled to Alabama last week to search a cotton field in Pike County in connection with the cold case disappearance of 17-year-old Morgan Martin, who was four months pregnant when she was last seen leaving her home in St. Pete in 2012, but the search turned up no results.

Detectives were led there by 34-year-old Jacobee Flowers who pled guilty to second-degree murder earlier this month in connection with Martin's death. Flowers is believed to be the father of Martin's unborn child.

"She was a fun kid. She liked everybody. She couldn’t have found wrong in anybody," Morgan Martin's mom Leah Martin said.

Leah Martin said her daughter couldn’t wait to become a mother.

"That’s all Morgan wanted to be was a mom. Kids want to grow up and be nurses and doctors. No, she wanted to be a mom. She really did," Leah Martin said.

Morgan Martin was months pregnant when she was last seen leaving her home near 29th Street South and 17th Avenue South in St Petersburg on July 25, 2012.

In 2016, Flowers was indicted for murder. After years of denying his involvement, new DNA technology linked him to her death. 

In April 2022, he pled guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for a 25-year sentence if he leads investigators to her body.

"I didn't get to see her have a baby. I didn't get to see her graduate from school. I didn't get to see her do any of those things. You know. I didn't get to see her be the mom I think she could have been," Leah Martin shared.

Photos from the Pike County Sheriff's Office in Alabama show investigators using a backhoe and cadaver dogs as well as an archeologist from a nearby university to search this cotton field outside of Troy, Alabama near where Flowers has extended family. 

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 A lieutenant told FOX 13 that Flowers was on video chat from jail when he led them to the area but says certain details just didn't add up like how Flowers described the soil in the area as soft dirt when it was really thick clay.

"We're not sure what to think. We were hopeful to finish this through to the end for her mother and for her family, unfortunately, the information we got either wasn't good information," St. Petersburg Police Spokesperson Yolanda Fernandez said.

After two days of searching, nothing was found. Leah Martin has no doubt Flowers knows where her daughter is but whether or not he helps she says she's hopeful one day she'll be brought back home. 

"I always prayed that it would come down to this that he had to tell us, but he doesn't have to. It's just about how much of his life he wants to give up," Martin said.

Flowers has till Friday to give up the location of Martin's body to investigators or else he'll be handed down a 40-year sentence. His sentencing is scheduled for April 28, which is when Leah Martin will address her daughter's killer face-to-face for the first time in court.