WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — What was supposed to be a night of celebration turned into months of questions for one Central Georgia family.
Back in February of 2018, hundreds of people gathered at the Civic Center in Warner Robins to watch the Miss Teen Pageant crown the winners who would move on to the national competition in December of 2019.
That included Sophia Cervantes.
"She was always getting picked on at school because she liked to play with Legos and she was in the STEM program and she likes computers and basically anything to do with technology. She’s not a 'girly-girl,'" said Sophia's mom, Kimberly.
After deciding to compete in the Miss Teen Pageant and winning the Georgia Miss Junior Preteen title, everything changed for 10-year-old Sophia.
"It was a real confidence-booster to her," said Kimberly.
Kimberly said pageant promoters promised them an all-expense paid trip to the national competition in Orlando, Florida in December of 2019 and a chance for a college scholarship.
After months of unanswered phone calls and emails to the pageant, that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen.
"We haven’t heard anything, nothing -- no letters, no mail, no phone calls, no emails -- nothing," said Kimberly.
She said they spent over $1,500 on a dress, hair, makeup and entry fees.
The entry fee itself was $595, plus an additional $125 if you wanted to submit yourself for "Miss Photogenic," which they did.
When you call the number listed on the Miss Teen Pageant website and Facebook, an automated message tells you that number is not set up to take calls.
We tried to reach out over e-mail, it came back as undeliverable.
Then, we reached out to the Better Business Bureau in Ohio, where Facebook says the pageant organization is based.
According to Sue McConnell, the bureau’s CEO, the pageant has a virtual office address.
Regus, the company that owns their virtual office, said it has not been renewed in over a year.
The Miss Teen Pageant website is set up under a proxy registration.
While McConnell said just because a website is registered with a proxy registration, it doesn't mean the business is not legitimate, "but it's not uncommon for deceptive businesses to use proxy registration."
McConnell also said the only record they have on file for the Miss Teen Pageant is a complaint from a contestant in South Carolina back in 2017 who said they were misled by pageant representatives from day one.
According to the contract Kimberly Cervantes signed, if for whatever reason the national pageant does not take place, each divisional winner is entitled to $845.
The Cervantes family said they just want answers.
"Her confidence level is dropping because she feels like she won this thing, but she really didn’t because it was fake," said Kimberly.
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