Missing Montco Teen Found By New Sex Trafficking Task Force

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, PA — A missing teenage girl was found safe in an Atlantic City hotel over the weekend after running away from her Montgomery County home, authorities said.

The 15-year-old was safely located within 24 hours thanks to the quick work of a newly formed sex crimes task force. The task force coordinated a multi-agency response to find the child, the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office said.

Detectives with the county's just-launched Human Trafficking/Child Exploitation Task Force worked alongside New Jersey State Police on the case. The teenager was not harmed and was returned home, officials said.

Further details on her situation in the hotel were not made available by authorities.

According to FBI statistics, the vast majority of missing children are runaways, who instantly make themselves vulnerable to the dangers of sex trafficking.

“Trafficking women and children—forcing them into having sex for money or drugs—is an all-too-frequent crime that happens even though residents may not hear much about it," District Attorney Kevin Steele said. "The most vulnerable population to fall prey to that victimization are children who have run away."

Creating a specific task force for this issue is crucial because runaways are, by nature, multi-jurisdictional. When a missing person crosses into another county or even state, the response becomes more complicated, officials note, making a streamlined effort even more indispensable.

The new initiative, led by Montgomery County Detective Kathleen Kelly, is a partnership between Mission Kids Child Advocacy Center and the Montgomery County Office of Children & Youth. Seven detectives from five different police departments across the county have also joined: Abington Detective Jeff Anderson, Conshohocken Detective Bill Walter, Hatfield Detective Alex Marchak, Pottstown Detective Brooke Hatfield, Pottstown Detective Todd Istenes, and Upper Merion Detectives Jay Nakahara and Mike Davis.