MIDDLEBURG, Fla. – Thankfully it’s rare, but News4JAX photojournalist Riley Storey and I became part of the story we were covering on Sunday morning.
It started just after 7 a.m. in Middleburg. I had just wrapped up my live shot about two young sisters that had gone missing in the small Clay County town.
We got back inside the news van to prepare for another report at 8 a.m. and about 15 minutes later, I happened to look up and saw a young girl walking past the van and through the Waffle House parking lot. She matched the description deputies gave of the missing 12-year-old girl.
What caught my attention was the grey hoodie and white crocs described by law enforcement.
While I called 911 to get in touch with the Clay County Sheriff’s Office, Storey jumped out of the van to catch up with the girl, who was still walking. He wanted to make sure she was safe while also not letting her get too far away before deputies could arrive to confirm who she was.
The girl and her older sister were reported missing from the nearby Hunter’s Run Apartment Homes on Blanding Boulevard on Saturday.
“I just walked up to her while you talked to police,” Storey told me later. “I said, ‘Hi, I am Riley I am with the news. We’re covering a missing girl. Are you that missing girl?’ At first, she just looked at me and then I said her name. ‘Are you that girl?’ She said yes and I said, ‘Great. Your sister is missing, too. Where is she?’ She would not tell me at first. I said, ‘It’s okay. You don’t have to tell me. Just tell me where if she is safe. I just wanna make sure she was safe.’ She said, ‘Yes, she’s safe.’”
Storey and the girl walked less than 200 yards to the Speedway gas station’s parking lot. About five minutes later, Clay County deputies showed up while the girl was inside the convenience store and Storey was waiting for her to come back out. Deputies then spoke with her.
She eventually got in one of the deputies’ cars as they drove away.
I asked Storey why he decided to walk with the young girl.
“To me, it was really important knowing that this is a 12-year-old girl who has been missing since last night,” he said. “She has no business being out by herself, especially as the morning progresses and people are getting up moving around. There are adults everywhere and who knows whose intentions aren’t pure. It was important to make sure that somebody, an adult, was with her. Making sure she was safe and continuously having eyes on her until police could get there and take over.”
We are grateful we were in the right place at the right time to help bring a young girl home safely.
On Sunday afternoon, deputies said they also found the girl’s sister who was reported missing the same day.