Channel 11 learned a 13-year-old girl from Pittsburgh who was missing for the past month has been behind bars in the Beaver County Jail for the past two weeks. The Beaver County District Attorney Nate Bible said she ended up here because she lied to police.
Pittsburgh police put out information about a missing 13-year-old girl early last month and were asking for the public’s help to locate her.
Turns out, she was being held in the Beaver County adult jail for the past two weeks.
Bible said the girl lied to police after she was caught stealing several items at the Dollar General in Beaver Falls on Aug. 17 with a 25-year-old woman.
Bible said the girl gave Beaver Falls police a fake name, Mae Wilson, and a fake birthday that indicated she was 18 years old. Although, she told officers several times she was a juvenile. Police told the girl they would release her to her parents, but she claimed she was homeless and from the Pittsburgh area.
“Beaver Falls police called Beaver County CYS when she disclosed she was from Pittsburgh. They contacted Allegheny County CYS to try to find any information on her, but since she gave a fake name, no one had any records of the individual,” Bible said.
Bible said they followed protocol, and they arraigned her, gave her bail, and placed her in jail until Tuesday morning.
“It was either a jail employee or an inmate who saw the photo of this juvenile as a missing person and recognized her as being housed in the Beaver County jail,” Bible said. “Immediately, the deputy warden isolated the juvenile to keep her by herself. They contacted her parents, and her parents came and picked her up.”
Bible said the jail and police did everything by the book.
“The officers did everything right and this happens quite frequently where they get a fake name or birthday from people who have warrants in different counties or different states,” Bible said. “They can’t just let her go because they can’t figure out who she is. I mean she did commit a crime.”
Bible said the girl’s parents picked her up at the jail Tuesday morning and she will face retail theft and resisting arrest charges in juvenile court and possibly a false identification charge as well.
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