US Marshals find missing teen girl pregnant in Port Huron
(CBS DETROIT) – A teenage girl missing for over a year is found hiding in a closet by the U.S. Marshals.
On Tuesday, the Michigan State Police referred the missing person's case to the U.S. marshals who jumped on it. Within hours, they were on their way to a house in Port Huron.
"They would not allow us to come in the home to speak with them to speak with anybody else that was inside the home, which threw up some flags for us," Robert Watson, Deputy U.S. Marshal for the Eastern District of Michigan, told CBS News Detroit.
Watson was one of the investigators at the Port Huron house looking for a 14-year-old girl who was reported missing by the St. Claire County Sheriff's Office in September 2021 and believe to be possibly sexually abused.
"Had run away from a foster home and potentially had been picked up by non-custodial parents," Watson said.
With a search warrant, law enforcement went into the home.
"When I began my interview, one of my task force partners, yells out contact, which is code for us that the person we're looking for, they have eyes on them. And this happened to be in a closet; the young lady was hiding behind some clothes," Watson said
Child Protective Services took the frightened girl to the hospital for an exam.
"She was shaken up. You know she's, she's such a young girl. She was visibly pregnant. So what we wanted to do was, we wanted to comfort her, we wanted to let her know and reassure her that she was safe," Watson said.
Authorities suspect her biological mother found the teen after she ran away and began moving her from house to house.
The US Marshals said the people who were uncooperative with law enforcement are associates of the girl's family.
As of now, none of them are facing charges, and it doesn't seem there were signs of human trafficking happening at the location.
As to why it took so long to find her:
"Law enforcement right now is completely understaffed," Watson said. "In the case of missing children, if you only have a handful of police officers or deputies that are responding from call to call for violent crimes, they may not have the personnel resources, to help with those things, or to jump on them immediately."
Thursday evening, the St. Clair County Sheriff's office released a statement that read in part:
"Any report of a missing person, especially a child, is taken seriously by the St. Clair County Sheriff's Office. Any and all means are used to attempt to locate the missing individual and ensure their safety. On September 3, 2021 the St. Clair County Sheriff's Office took a report of a juvenile that had run away from her foster parent's home in Greenwood Township. The female had been placed there temporarily and was expected to be placed in a more permanent home the following day (September 4). Unfortunately, she fled the home before this could happen. Upon taking the initial report, a St. Clair County Sheriff's deputy followed up with the foster care specialist in charge of her case to gather background and further information regarding the juvenile. He attempted to contact the juvenile directly, without success. Additionally, the deputy contacted multiple people the juvenile had been known to flee to or associate with, including her biological mother. After entering her as a missing person, the deputy ensured Port Huron Police Department was also aware that she was missing due to the fact that they have had frequent contact with her in the past. Over the next month and a half, deputies talked with the foster care specialist, who advised she was looking in to the possibility of filing charges against the biological mother for harboring a runaway, suspecting that she may have been hiding out with her mom at various locations in the county. Throughout 2022, St. Clair County Sheriff's Office, Port Huron Police Department and Marysville Police Department have followed up on leads that were received in connection to the missing juvenile as well as incidents involving her. Recently, the St. Clair County Sheriff's Office was contacted via email by an agent from MSP's Missing Children's Clearinghouse Intelligence Operations Division. The agency offered their assistance in locating the missing juvenile, stating the Clearinghouse had received information that the missing female was now possibly pregnant. Due to this possible change in events, the case now met the criteria for the case to be reviewed by the Clearinghouse. Information that they obtained led to the location of the missing runaway where she was safely taken in to custody by the US Marshals. Currently, the Sheriff's Office and Port Huron Police Department are conducting interviews to ensure that anyone involved is criminally held responsible, ranging from harboring this runaway to sexual assault…"
The girl and her biological father have been reunited. Her biological mother may face parental kidnapping charges in this case.
