4-Year-Old Girl Found Wandering Around Detroit Streets, Police Searching for Parents

This 4-year-old girl was found wandering the streets of Detroit, and now police are asking the public for help find her family. (Detroit Police Department)

A 4-year-old girl has been found wandering around Detroit, and now police are asking the public for help.

The child was discovered by two good Samaritans near Lakewood and Avondale streets before she was taken to police on the evening of Jan. 4, ClickonDetroit reported.

Police do not know who the girl’s parents are, as patrol units couldn’t locate them, WXYZ reported.

Now, officials are asking the public to help identify and locate the girl’s family.

Officials could not immediately confirm what time on Friday the child was found, according to the Detroit News.

The child was discovered by two good Samaritans near Lakewood and Avondale streets in Detroit (Google Street View)

It was about 38 degrees as of Friday night in Detroit, according to The Weather Channel.

Anyone with information can call the Detroit Police Department at 313-596-5501.

People can also call the Detroit Police Department’s Fifth Precinct at 313-596-5500 or call 911.

A 4-year-old girl was found wandering around eastern Detroit (Google Maps)

The child’s name was not released to the public. Other details about the case are not clear.

Missing Children in the United States

There were 464,324 missing children reported in the FBI’s National Crime Information Center (NCIC) in 2017, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Under federal law, when a child is reported missing to law enforcement authorities, they must be entered into the database. In 2016, there were 465,676 entries.

“This number represents reports of missing children. That means if a child runs away multiple times in a year, each instance would be entered into NCIC separately and counted in the yearly total. Likewise, if an entry is withdrawn and amended or updated that would also be reflected in the total,” the center said.

In 2017, the center said it had assisted officers and families with more than 27,000 missing children. In those cases, 91 percent were endangered runaways and 5 percent family abductions.

Nancy McBride, the executive director of Florida Outreach at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said most of the runaways involve technology.

“[Technology] has great benefits and some potential risks,” McBride told USA Today in 2017. “It’s important to stay plugged into their lives.” Tech is utilized by online predators, McBride said, who exploit gaps when the child’s relationship with their parents is not the best.

About one in seven children reported missing to the center in 2017 were likely to be victims of child sex trafficking, the center said.