A 15-year-old girl was found safe after North Carolina police issued an AMBER Alert regarding her disappearance.
Before she was found, Yesenia Denise Lopez was reportedly last seen at her Seven Springs home just after 11 p.m. Saturday, the Lenoir County Sheriff’s Office said Monday afternoon. She was found safe soon after the alert went out.
Police have yet to reveal details, but said they’d like to thank the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office, the North Carolina Bureau of Investigation and the FBI for their help.
The National Center for Missing and Endangered, Inc. also commented on the Lenoir County Sheriff’s Office’s announcement indicating they had shared the AMBER Alert with their network.
The Independent has contacted the Lenoir County Sheriff’s Office for more information.
Officials can issue an AMBER Alert when they believe an abduction may have occurred and that the child is in imminent danger, according to the Department of Justice. AMBER Alerts are issued for missing people who 17 years old or younger.
Lopez’s AMBER Alert was the only one active in the state before it was canceled, according to the North Carolina Center for Missing Persons.
There have been more than 13,000 missing persons cases in North Carolina so far this year, according to the Center. Nearly 600 of these cases are still active, while 12,769 have been solved.
More than 8,100 of these cases involved juveniles, the Center said.
Eleven of the cases so far this year resulted in AMBER Alerts, the Center reports. Meanwhile, six of the cases required Ashanti Alerts, which are for adults 18- to 64-years-old.
There have been zero silver alerts, which are for people 65 and older, and zero blue alerts, which are for missing or endangered law enforcement officers, in North Carolina so far this year according to the Center.
