A 14-year-old Homestead girl who had been missing for nearly six weeks has been found “safe and sound” at a friend’s house, according to Homestead police.
The girl, Yarilis Mendez Carrillo, had been the subject of a missing child alert issued by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Homestead police said they were concerned about her safety and were looking into the possibility that the child had been abducted.
Homestead Police Officer and spokesman Oscar Roque told CBS News Miami that Mendez Carrillo was found at a friend’s home that was not far from where she was last seen on March 11, leaving her grandmother’s apartment.
Roque said that police utilized a special texting system to contact more than 40,000 people in the city, which helped solve the case. Someone attempted to talk the teenager into leaving her friend’s home and returning to her grandmother’s apartment, and police were eventually called.
The child is now in police custody, and the Department of Children and Families, or DCF, has been contacted. Roque also said the girl had changed her appearance in the past month and a half.
Roque noted police had initially been very concerned for her safety.
“That is part of what we are looking at, and our concern is to not leave any stone unturned,” Roque said about the initial abduction possibility. “We are not going to rule anything out at this point”.
The girl’s grandmother, Marilena Carrido Gomez De Mendez, had spoken with CBS News Miami right before she was found.
“The last time I saw her was March 11 at 7:30 p.m., when she disappeared from our apartment,” Mendez said. “I want to know where she is and what the motive is. Who is she with? She left like nothing was going on”.
Mendez said the family brought Mendez Carrillo to South Florida from Guatemala for a better life. “We brought her here to study and for a better life, but she has been rebellious”.
Roque had noted the girl had a history of running away, but never for this length of time. “She is what we call a constant runaway, but her normal habit is to leave the house and come back in a day or two. The longest she has ever been gone is about a week”.
The teenager had not been on social media or contacted anyone since she left. She was last seen in the 300 block of SW 12th Ave. in Homestead.
