Friday Update: Heaven’s mom reports she’s home and reunited with family. The circumstances of her return or how she was found are unclear.

As you’ll see below, the initial post was shared 1.4 million times. Amazing. Snopes wrote an article about the post confirming its validity.

Over the last few years, we’ve seen law enforcement turn to social media as a primary tool for tracking down missing people.  As a broadcast journalist, I’ve seen numerous examples where Facebook posts help find people before the story ever has the opportunity to hit television.

I was struck tonight by a post with more than 85,000 shares in just three hours.

Tammy Day Cox, a mother in Orange County, Texas, posted that her 15-year-old had gone missing.  According to family friends, Heaven Cox might have left to meet a man she befriended on Snapchat.  The teen suffers from mental illness and is currently off her medication.

Tammy desperately turned to Facebook for help and the response was overwhelming.

A Google search will show this story hasn’t yet been picked up by local media.  Perhaps it won’t due to the circumstances.  However, social media may deliver far more eyeballs than traditional media ever could.

Tammy continues to update people across the country who are following her posts.

Take a moment to share her posts and spread the word!  Could Facebook help bring her home? Let’s hope this story has a happy ending — and Heaven returns to her parents safe and sound.