South Gwinnett News

An elementary school teacher who went missing last month has been found dead in Mexico.

Authorities on Nov. 9 announced that Alexandra Morales was found dead more than a week after she was reported missing.

A Twitter user named Andy paid tribute to the woman he said was beloved by his daughter.

‘’This is such a hard loss! I cannot even imagine the pain her family is feeling,” the father tweeted. “She was my daughter’s teacher and my daughter really loved her. To have to explain to a 6-year-old that their teacher is no longer here was so hard.”

The 24-year-old Morales taught first grade at Benefield Elementary School in Gwinnett County.

According to Atlanta’s FOX5, Morales took personal leave but didn’t return as intended, prompting Benefield Principal Shonda Gipson-Stevens to write parents regarding Morales’s disappearance.

Gipson-Stevens told the station that Morales’s family informed her police had conducted an investigation in regard to her last-known whereabouts in the vicinity of their native Guadalajara, Mexico.

In the letter to parents, the principal wrote, “I wanted to provide you with this information so that you are prepared to answer questions from your child should her absence continue."

A substitute teacher filled in for Morales and was assisted by the first-grade team, according to Gipson-Stevens.

Destiny Porter, whose 9-year-old son was a former student of Morales’s, emphasized the gravity of a beloved member of a school community passing away.

"It’s never easy finding out that somebody in your school community has passed away, especially if they were a part of your children's lives,” the mother told 11Alive. “We decided to tell the kids together as we do most things.”

Porter said her son and other students were upset, and just like the grownups, are searching for answers.