Posted on 02/05/2003 5:41:11 PM PST by HairOfTheDog
RICHLAND - Benton County and Kennewick police have issued an Amber alert for a missing 5-year-old girl.
Police say she may have been abducted about 8 p.m. Tuesday from her home in Kennewick.
Police chief Marc Harden of Kennewick says the girl was playing in a bedroom, came out and asked her mother if she could go to the store with her grandmother's boyfriend.
The boyfriend returned and the mother asked where the daughter was. The chief says the boyfriend said the little girl was not with him.
Maynard says investigators have ruled out a custody dispute. They have searched the neighborhood without finding a trace of the girl.
Sofia Juarez is Hispanic with black hair and brown eyes. She was wearing blue overalls, a red shirt and white tennis shoes. She is missing four of her top front teeth.
More than 100 people are searching for the girl. It's her fifth birthday today.
Anyone with information should contact Kennewick Police at (509) 628-0303 or 800-841-7953.
It was reported last night on the local TV news. I don't see anything on the online Tri-City Herald.
I think it is just wishful thinking on their part.
I still don't know which story is correct. She was last seen in her bedroom (I believe with a cousin)? or She was given money to catch the grandma's boyfriend and go to the store? Either way I don't see how the father could have been envolved.
Missing persons experts help with Sofia
This story was published Thursday, May 1st, 2003
By John Trumbo, Herald staff writer
As the perplexing case of 5-year-old Sofia Juarez nears three months, Kennewick police detectives are getting some extra help from far outside the Tri-Cities.
Two experts in missing persons cases who work with the Center for Missing and Endangered Children in Virginia arrived in Kennewick this week to comb through the Juarez case files.
The two men, retired detectives from Los Angeles and Lane County, Ore., are reviewing all aspects of the case, said Sgt. Randy Maynard.
The visiting detectives so far have been working inside the police department, poring over hundreds of leads that have come to police since Sofia vanished Feb. 4 on the eve of her fifth birthday.
Her family says she was last seen leaving home on East 15th Avenue to follow an adult from the family to the store.
Although detectives Ken Taylor and Roman Trujillo have received more than 460 tips in the past 11 weeks, nothing has produced a solid clue on the girl?s whereabouts.
It appears Sofia disappeared without a trace, which is the title of a news magazine special to be aired on CBS television at 10 tonight, said Maynard.
The program will devote 15 minutes to the case, said Maynard. He added that he knows of no one in the Kennewick Police Department who was interviewed by CBS.
The visiting detectives, who declined to be interviewed, arrived Tuesday. They are part of a resource team called Project Team Adam, assembled by the national center in Virginia. Maynard said the specialists are farmed out to law enforcement agencies on particularly tough cases.
I haven't read it yet as I wanted to get this posted to you.
Thank you! Going to read it right now Spunky! BRB!
Again thank you for the find!!!
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