A 15-year-old girl who went missing from Montgomery County, Maryland, was found in a Baltimore mall on Tuesday, six weeks after her disappearance, authorities said.
The teen was “recognized by a mall employee,” who contacted security early Tuesday afternoon, Montgomery County police said. Mall security then contacted police, and she was reunited with her family.
The teen left her home in North Bethesda on July 11. Her parents told News4 earlier this month that they feared she had been lured from home by someone she met on social media.
“We believe that she was kind of groomed and lured online by somebody, and we’ve got evidence of that from social media,” her mother said. “And that, yes, she left, may have been voluntarily, but now she’s been abducted or she is somewhere that we don’t believe that she’s in control of her situation.”
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The teen kissed her mother goodnight and went to her room. When her mother went to check on her later, she was gone. She left her phone and makeup bag, and didn’t take money that was sitting on the counter.
“If she could be home, she would be,” her mother said. “Someone’s taken her from us. I truly believe that she’s been taken.”
Montgomery County police searched the area near the teen’s home and found surveillance images showing her near a Whole Foods store on Executive Boulevard at about 9 p.m. on July 11. That was the last time she was seen.
Her parents asked anyone with any information on her whereabouts, no matter how minor, to contact police.
The FBI and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children helped county police in the investigation.
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No information was immediately released on what happened to the girl.
“Detectives continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding [the teen’s] disappearance. No further information is available at this time,” police said in a statement.
Stay with NBC Washington for more details on this developing story.
