UPDATE: The Sheriff’s Office has advised the children have been located safe. No other details were released in the update shortly before 2 p.m.
ORIGINAL STORY:
A search continues for two children, 10 and 11 years old, who remain missing as of 3 p.m. June 10 when the family said they had left to take a bus to a Jacksonville park on Benedict Road in northern Westside area.
The Sheriff’s Office issued a “Missing Endangered Children” alert with their photos about 6:30 a.m. June 11 stating the family reported them missing at 3:40 a.m. The family said the searched for them when they failed to return home after leaving the home in the 2800 block of Lippia Road at 3 p.m. a day earlier.
The Sheriff’s Office is asking anyone who lives in this area to check any cameras, vehicles and property for the children.
The Sheriff’s Office also provided a noon update that the girls boarded a bus at Edgewood Avenue West and Cleveland Road less than mile from their hope on Lippia Road. They are believed to be in the area of Golfbrook Drive and West 45th Street.
Both girls are Black, Brooklyn being 10 and Taylor 11.
The Sheriff’s Office described Brooklyn as 4-foot-9 with brown eyes and black hair wearing a black T-shirt with a white logo on the front and gray shorts.
Taylor is described as 5-foot-2 with brown eyes and black “afro back rubber band” hair wearing pink and blue shorts and a black hoodie with an unknown logo on front.
From 2019: Missing children found alive on Jacksonville’s Westside
Anyone having seen or who knows the whereabouts of Taylor and Brooklyn is asked to contact the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office at (904) 630-0500 or 911.
The Times-Union has requested the missing person report to try to learn more.
Why hasn’t an AMBER alert been issued?
Thus far the criteria for an AMBER (America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response) alert hasn’t been met.
These alerts are issued when a child may have been kidnapped or abducted.
According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the following criteria must be met to activate an alert:
(This story has been updated with the news that they have been found safe.)
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: They’ve been found: Children, 10 and 11, were missing for hours. Here’s what we know
Reporting by Scott Butler, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
