A 16-year-old girl has been found safe, her family says, more than a week after she went outside to take out the trash in Southeast D.C. and then didn't return home.
The teen, whose name News4 has removed from this story for her privacy, had disappeared June 29.
“It’s hard. I don’t know where to start,” said her mother while the girl was missing. “I tried every resource that I had. I called every friend. I called every number in the phone. I went to T-Mobile.com and pulled up bills.”
She said that on the evening of June 29, her daughter took out the garbage and went to get her hair done but didn’t return. The teen was last seen that evening about 8 p.m. on Maine Avenue in the Wharf area, according to a poster from D.C. police. Her family said she didn't have her phone with her.
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“I kind of told myself, ‘... you know, just think positive, think positive,’ but then positive became negative, because I’m like, 'This is not like my child,'" her mother said.
Over the past few days, her mom worked with D.C. detectives, and the Black and Missing Foundation posted a flyer online.
The teen was found safe on Friday and was being reunited with her family.
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Loved ones described the girl, a rising high school junior, as a good kid who is kind and generous. She missed a big family reunion over the weekend and the Fourth of July, which was unlike her.
“I always call her my star child because she always is calm, sweet, helpful,” her great-grandmother said.
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