ROYSE CITY, Texas — A local AMBER Alert has been canceled after a missing 16-year-old girl out of Royse City was found safe, police say.
Police said the teen was found at about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday in a residence in the 900 block of Milam Drive in Euless.
The girl was found with a 17-year-old male. She was taken to the Rockwall County Child Advocacy Center for a forensic interview and he was arrested and charged by the Euless Police Department with harboring a runaway.
Police say they are still investigating the circumstances surrounding the girl's disappearance, but said no evidence has been found to show that an abduction took place.
Royse City police said the teen was last seen around 5 a.m. on Saturday, July 22. According to police, she was spending the night at a friend's house in the 300 block of North Houston Street when she told her friend that her mother wanted her home. The teen told her friend that her mother called an Uber to take her home, police said.
Something her family says isn't true.
The friend told police that the girl may have entered a black passenger car with chrome wheels. Police said that the friend stated the teen was texting her about the ride home and that she texted she arrived home in Caddo Mills.
Police said at about 4 p.m. on that same Saturday, the girl's mother arrived at the friend's home to pick up her daughter. It was there that the mother learned she had left at about 5 a.m.
The mother called the girl's father to see if she went to his home, but the 16-year-old was not there, according to police.
Police said the father checked the location of his daughter's cellphone, which showed that it was turned off and that its last location was somewhere in Euless at about 7 a.m. that morning.
The teen's mother called Euless police and drove to Euless but could not find her. The mother then contacted the Royse City Police Department, where the 16-year-old was entered as a missing person/runaway.
After exhausting all leads, the Royse City Police Department said they were concerned about her safety, which led to the local AMBER Alert being issued.
"A local area AMBER Alert is new and allows law enforcement to submit a request through the Texas Department of Public Safety for an AMBER Alert even when all the criteria for a state-wide alert have not been verified," police said.
The criteria and use of a local AMBER Alert became law during the most recent legislative session and was inspired by the murder of 7-year-old Athena Strand.
At about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 26, Royse City police the teen girl was located safe and was in "good health."
