Lakewood Mother Asks for the Public’s Help Finding Her Missing Daughter

It’s been almost a month since Cecly Broadbent was last seen by her family and friends.

For the 22-year-old’s mother, Susan, the hours seem like days, the weeks like a lifetime.

Cecly left her Lakewood home March 2, and her family thought she went to stay with her brother, who lives just a few blocks away. When family members learned she never went to her brother’s home, they waited a few days to .

After all, she’d often run with the wrong crowd, and left home before. 

But never for this long, and never without calling.

If Cecly had gone to stay with friends, she took no bags of clothes, no money and no toothbrush. And the cell phone she was using had been disconnected.

Susan, who has a different last name but asked that it not be used for this story, said that no one in the family has seen or talked to her daughter in almost a month.

“Sometimes, just getting through the days is not enough,” she said. “I have to tell myself ‘I am going to get through this hour. I am going to get through this minute.’”

Cecly’s entire family has been out in full force, putting up flyers on telephone poles, bus stops and grocery stores in Cleveland neighborhoods near E. 54th Street and Broadway Avenue, where Cecly has been known to frequent.

There have been few leads.

Lakewood police are handling the investigation. Susan said detectives tracked Cecly to a residence in Cleveland, where she was caught on a surveillance camera leaving the home in the early morning of March 3. A short time later, she called a friend and left a voicemail but only cried in her message.

From there the case has gone cold.

The police department issued a missing-person alert March 16 and released a poster, asking for the public’s help in Cecly’s disappearance.

On March 20, someone reported that she was spotted on Grace Avenue — near Franklin Boulevard — but when squads arrived minutes later, the woman matching Cecly’s description was nowhere to be found, according to a police report.

“We do not have any current leads where she is,” said Lakewood police chief Timothy Malley.

Last week, someone told Cecly's cousin — who was hanging posters in Cleveland — that she’s seen the face on the flyer, but nothing has panned out yet.

“I go crazy reading those stories about the Imperial Avenue women,” Susan said, referencing the victims of a suspected serial killing. “It’s really scary.”

Susan said that Cecly — who also goes by the name “CeCe” — has had a few struggles in her life. Cecly and her brother moved to Lakewood from southern Ohio more than 10 years ago when Susan adopted them.

Cecly had trouble adjusting at her new school, and at times, fell in with the wrong circle of friends.

“My mind goes to the worst places a parent’s mind can go,” Susan said, holding back tears. “When my cell phone rings and it shows a restricted phone number I get scared, because it means the detectives are calling. I am afraid it’s bad news.”

“You never want to think this would happen to your children. It’s the worst.”

Cecly is 5-feet, 4-inches tall, with brown eyes, weighing 128 pounds and brown hair — although she recently dyed it black.

Anyone with information is encouraged to call Capt. Anthony Ciresi or Det. Raymond Fuerst of the at 216-529-6760 or 216-529-6776.