A young child who vanished from Duarte nearly six years ago has been found safe in North Carolina, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Authorities said they located the child last week in Washington County, North Carolina, where the youngster was enrolled in a local school. The child has since been placed in protective custody as the investigation continues in coordination with child welfare officials and North Carolina authorities.
The case dates back to July 1, 2020, when the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, known as DCFS, contacted deputies at the Sheriff’s Temple Station in Duarte to report the child missing. At the time, DCFS investigators were already looking into a matter involving the family, but officials said the child’s mother—who had legal custody—abruptly stopped communicating with them and was believed to have taken the child, the department said in a March 10 press release.
For nearly six years, the child’s whereabouts remained unknown. Then, on March 6, detectives at Temple Station received a lead suggesting the child might be living in Washington County. Investigators coordinated with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, which followed up and located the missing child.
Operation Recovers 37 Missing Children
The child’s discovery comes amid a period of renewed focus in California and across the country on finding missing children and supporting victims of exploitation. Only days earlier, a joint law enforcement sweep in Riverside County recovered 37 missing children during a weeklong effort known as Operation Safe Return, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta.That operation was led by the U.S. Marshals Service and the California Department of Justice and involved more than a dozen agencies targeting some of the region’s most vulnerable youth who had disappeared for anywhere between one month and two years.
“Every child deserves to be safe, protected, and given the chance to live their life free from exploitation,” Newsom said in announcing the results. “California will continue to stand with victims and survivors, protect our most vulnerable, and do everything in our power to bring every child home safely.”
According to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office, investigators identified more than 50 missing children aged 14 to 17 before launching searches that extended from Riverside County to San Bernardino, Orange, and Los Angeles counties—and even as far as Northern California, Arizona, and Nevada. Some children were found to be victims of sex trafficking and other abuse, officials said.
Bonta called the work “some of the most important we can do,” adding, “We will never stop fighting to protect California children and bring them home.”