HOWARD COUNTY, Ark. – The search is over for a 16-year-old girl from Arkansas who was reported missing on Saturday.
Arkansas State Police announced Tuesday the teen was found safe over 150 miles away from her hometown of Mineral Springs in Leonard, Texas.
According to Howard County Sheriff Bryan McJunkins, Adrian Garces, the man accused of picking up the girl from outside her home, called the number listed for the Mineral Springs Police Department on AMBER alerts that were sent out to turn himself in.
Police said Garces called and received advice from Police Chief Francisco Ercado to turn himself in for felony Interference with Custody.
Authorities said he then did so in Texas, but the girl he allegedly left the state with was not with him. It took an additional night of searching to locate the missing teen in Leonard. Who she was with and specifically where she was found are yet to be released.
“We believe that there had been some kind of dating app communication between the two,” McJunkins said.
The family of the girl said they were not ready for an interview as they wait for the child’s return, but the teen’s grandmother Brenda Harmon shared a message.
“I want to thank everyone from law enforcement to the people who shared my granddaughter’s picture and helped to bring her home safely,” Harmon said. “We greatly appreciate it.”
The incident has Arkansans like Maria Salinas in Mineral Springs holding her granddaughter closely.
“What I know is we’ve got to be careful,” Salinas said.
She tells her kids no matter how careful they think they are, you never know who someone else is over the internet.
“I’m glad she’s okay,” Salina said. “She got home because you know a lot of kids when they looking for, they find them, but they find them dead, or they never find them at all.”
Garces will be extradited to Howard County eventually, but deputies say what charges, if any, Texas authorities bring him could affect the timeline.