“We’ve checked abandoned barns,” said Maxel, who noted that the girl’s parents declined to speak with the media. “We’ve checked empty lots.”
But Sheriff Michael Simpson said that without any leads, his office can’t do any more than what protocol mandates must be done in such situations.
The sheriff’s office has entered Darian’s name and picture with the database maintained by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, in Alexandria, Va., as well as with the National Crime Information Center, a sharing system used by law enforcement.
“If she runs into law enforcement and she gives them accurate information, they'll hang onto her,” Simpson said, explaining how the NCIC system works. “Hopefully, she'll give them accurate information.”
Simpson said, “right now, we have it as a runaway child. We have absolutely nothing in our investigation to suggest that it’s anything other than a runaway. At this point, we're doing everything we can do. We're following our protocol.”
The teen has a cell phone, Simpson said, but it’s a Trak phone. “We don’t have the ability to track the cell phone that she may have,” he said. ”You can't ping it or get coordinates on it.”
Simpson said he understands the parents’ concern, but “none of this qualifies as an Amber Alert. There are very stringent guidelines you have to go by. At this point, we don't even know who the girl may be with. There's no violence that we're aware of,” he said, explaining some of the circumstances under which such alerts would be triggered.
The sheriff’s office is not aware of any history with this family at all as far as past instances of Darian running away, Simpson said.
He said his office has filed a request with the court to access Darian’s phone records, but that will take a few days.
“At this point, unless we get some leads and get some information we can follow up on, we’re going to have to wait on some records,” Simpson said. “We're going to have to find out who this girl may have been in contact with.”
About the Author