--- title: 'Affluenza' Teen Likely Being Helped By Mom description: The so-called "affluenza teen" has been missing for a week after violating his probation, and authorities believe his mother his helping him canonical: https://time.com/4158024/affluenza-teen-missing-drunk-driving/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-21T22:07:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T13:34:31.684Z article:section: U.S. og:title: Missing 'Affluenza' Teen Likely Being Helped By Mom og:description: He's been missing for a week og:url: https://time.com/4158024/affluenza-teen-missing-drunk-driving/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Missing 'Affluenza' Teen Likely Being Helped By Mom twitter:description: He's been missing for a week twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Missing 'Affluenza' Teen Likely Being Helped By Mom  by [Tessa Berenson](/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Dec 21, 2015 10:07 PM CUT  by [Tessa Berenson](/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Dec 21, 2015 10:07 PM CUT The so-called “affluenza teen” has been missing for a week after violating his probation, and authorities believe his mother his helping him. Ethan Couch killed four people two years ago in a drunk driving incident, and was labeled the “[affluenza teen](http://time.com/5304/no-jail-for-affluenza-teen/ "undefined")” for his legal defense, which claimed that he was raised so coddled that he never learned a sense of responsibility. He disappeared after a video surfaced this week appearing to show him drinking at a party, [CNN reports](http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/21/us/texas-affluenza-drunken-driving-teen/index.html "undefined"), missing a meeting with his probation officer. On Monday, the Tarrant County, Texas sheriff’s office said that Ethan’s mother Tonya Couch has been listed as a missing person and that she may be helping her son. “We believe she is helping or assisting him but we can’t even prove they are together at this time,” said Sheriff Dee Anderson, according to CNN. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4158024/affluenza-teen-missing-drunk-driving/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4158024/affluenza-teen-missing-drunk-driving/"},"headline":"Missing 'Affluenza' Teen Likely Being Helped By Mom","datePublished":"2015-12-21T22:07:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T13:34:31.684Z","description":"He's been missing for a week","url":"https://time.com/4158024/affluenza-teen-missing-drunk-driving/","keywords":["Crime"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4158024/affluenza-teen-missing-drunk-driving/","name":"Missing 'Affluenza' Teen Likely Being Helped By Mom"}}]}] ```