HUNTINGTON -- Family and friends of 21-year-old Leah Hickman remain hopeful despite not hearing from her since Dec. 14.

Her mother, Sherry Russell, filed a missing persons report Dec. 16 after several attempts to reach her daughter failed.

"Her sister saw her at four o'clock cause she was here doing dishes Leah was," said Sherry Russell, Leah's mother.

Hickman is a journalism student at Marshall and described as 5 feet, 4 inches tall with brown hair and blue eyes.

Her mother said she doesn't do anything without talking to someone, checking in with friends or family. She added that for her to just disappear is really bizarre.

According to the police report Hickman's purse, car keys and coat remained in her room. Her yellow Chevrolet Cavalier still is parked just outside her apartment building at 403 8th Avenue.

It's known that Hickman bought McDonald's at around 5:40 p.m. Dec. 14 and was supposed to meet with a friend later that evening, but never showed.

"I was just calling her to see if she was on her way or what time she planned on coming by and it went to her voicemail, and I honestly didn't think much about it. I thought she was asleep cause she's been busy this week and we just got done with finals. Then she didn't call me back on Saturday and I knew it wasn't good," said Caitlin Starkey, whose known Leah since the seventh grade.

Caitlin and Leah's mother say her voicemail on her cell phone is completely full and messages of concern stream across her MySpace page.

The Dress Barn in Barboursville, the store where Leah works, is offering $10,000 reward for any information about where the girl might be.

If you have any information on Leah's whereabouts, call the Huntington Detectives bureau at (304) 696-4420.