A teenager who disappeared almost 18 months ago was found by US Marshals crying in a wardrobe near to two people who claimed they knew nothing about her.
Police searching for a 14-year-old girl who had gone missing from her foster parents’ home almost 18 months ago found the missing teen pregnant, scared, and crying in a wardrobe.
Deputy US Marshal Robert Watson, who led the police team that made the shocking discovery, says the girl is around four or five months pregnant.
Deputy Watson said the girl was found on Tuesday, February 7, in a house on the south side of Port Huron, Michigan, but the occupants of the house claimed they didn’t know she was there.
He told the Detroit Free Press that investigators had been led to the house by a tip-off from a member of the public.
But the occupants of the house did not let officers in, Deputy Watson said.
“They wouldn’t allow us to speak with anyone in the house, which were huge red flags for us. The lady said, ‘Come back with a search warrant.’ So we did.”
The missing girl was found in a closet in the hallway, just a few yards away from where two men were watching television. The occupants of the house insisted to police that they didn’t know where she was.
“She was crying. She didn’t know where she was going to go. She was pretty terrified. And she was afraid of losing her baby,” Deputy Watson said.
Police took the girl for a medical checkup, after which she was reunited with her biological father.
“She was ecstatic about that,” Deputy Watson said. “She was afraid that if she was found, she would go back in the system… She was just, ‘I wanna be with my dad. I wanna be with my dad.'”
Investigators are pursuing parental kidnapping charges against the girl’s biological mother, who reportedly lost custody of her daughter, resulting in the child being placed with foster parents.
Deputy Watson said that the mother somehow managed to find her daughter after she ran away from her foster family, and moved her several times in a bid to evade the authorities.
Somewhere along the way, the child became pregnant.
Deputy Watson said before handing the girl over to her dad, he said a few last words: “I asked her to promise me,” he said, “If you ever need help … call that number and we would figure it out some way.”
