A Utah high school student, 15-year-old Lily Grace Stephens, was found safe after going missing for about a week.
Jennie Brown, the teen’s mother, confirmed she was found on social media.
“My mom passed away suddenly in January. Her uncle, Gabriel drowned in March and her uncle, Clinton ended on Halloween this year. So she’s pretty broken, lost, and angry,” added Brown. “Her counselor said that Lily has seen more loss in the past year than most adults do in their entire life.”
Brown also said Lily has been bullied at school.
“It’s supposed to be the best years of her life and it’s the worst. It’s not fair that a 15-year-old is hurting so much and as a mom, I can’t put a band-aid on it,” said Brown, according to ABC4.
Police in Herriman were able to obtain a warrant and tracked down her location via social media. They found her after knocking on several doors, officials said, without elaborating, according to the ABC affiliate report.
Brown said Lily’s disappearance highlights teen mental health in the area. “It’s an issue that’s on the forefront of, I think, a lot of our minds. It makes us certainly concerned for her well-being at this point,” said Brown.
Missing Children
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 children are reported missing to law enforcement 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 Likewise, if an entry is withdrawn and amended or updated, that would also be reflected in the total,” the center noted.
In 2017, the center said it assisted officers and families with the cases of more than 27,000 missing children. In those cases, 91 percent were endangered runaways, and 5 percent were family abductions. About one in seven children reported missing to the center in 2017 was likely a victim of child sex trafficking, experts said.