Missing Girl Found In Basement

(AP)  It's a mystery police here are working to solve.

Did someone lock a Haitian 12-year-old girl in a squalid basement crawl space inside her home with only a half-box of cornflakes and a pan for a toilet, or did she do so herself?

Guirlene Dupuy, who moved from Haiti four years ago to live with a cousin, was last seen at school on May 4. School officials say the family at first did not respond to calls, but on the fourth day a worried relatives showed up, asking for help finding the girl.

On Wednesday, police suspicious of the family's story searched the row house for a third time and found the severely dehydrated child in a space underneath the basement stairs that was blocked by a heavy wood tabletop.

"I don't think an animal could live in there comfortably," Police Inspector William Colarulo said of the cramped space, which he estimated was about 4 feet high by 4 feet long by 2 feet wide.

"The officers ... were relieved to find her alive, but they were shocked and saddened that a child would be in that situation," he said.

No charges have been filed in the case. Police Capt. Len Ditchkofsky said it was possible the girl had been hiding in the closet, although another officer described the tabletop as "very heavy."

A relative said she may have been upset about a bad grade at school.

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