Runaway Teen
When a child runs away from home, a parent is suddenly thrust into living their worst nightmare. Several years ago, we were hired by the parents of a teenage girl who had just run away from home the night before. Although the police had already responded and taken a report, the parents were worried that not enough would be done to try and find their child. Our investigators responded to the home and collected information about the missing girl.
When a child runs away from home, a parent is suddenly thrust into living their worst nightmare.
The investigators were also given the child’s laptop computer and asked to see what could be found on it that might help locate the child. One of our digital forensic examiners performed a triage examination of the device and quickly recovered artifacts of interest in the deleted space of the device’s hard drive. Among these were the girl’s internet search history, listing several searches on the location of Washington D.C.’s Union Station bus station; how long a bus ride to Los Angeles, California takes; and how to find a shelter in Los Angeles.
Based on this information, our investigators immediately contacted the police detective assigned to the case and worked with them to determine if the child had purchased a bus ticket on the night in question. Their efforts paid off. The police were able to confirm that the child did, in fact, purchase a bus ticket to Los Angeles, and were able to learn which bus the child was traveling on as well.
In the nick-of-time, working with the police, we were able to get a sheriff’s office in rural California to stop the bus and retrieve the child. Our investigators and one of the girl’s trusted family members then flew to California and safely returned the girl back to her parents in DC.