Several Missing DC Teenagers Have Been Found Safe

Photo courtesy of NBC Washington

After news broke that over a dozen black and Latinx teenagers were missing in Washington, D.C. (resulting in nationwide outcry), police have revealed that some of them have been located.

According to a report from NBC Washington, the teens that have been found so far are Demetria Carthens (17); Heaven Shamte (15); Rayna Gross (16); Jaylen Lee (14); Michelle Jordan (16); and Dashann Wallace (15).

Shamte, Gross, Lee and Wallace were all reported missing in March, while Carthens had been missing since early February. The most recent reported missing occurred last week with Jordan.

More than a dozen Washington, D.C., teenagers have been reported missing in 2017.

An interactive map has been created that details the name, age and where the teenager was last seen. Some of the teens still missing in D.C. include Shaniah Boyd (14) and Anjel Burl (16), who went missing sometime between March 17 and 22.

D.C. police did not previously publicize each missing person case to the degree they do now. But the flurry of social media posts on the missing teens have led people to accuse the police of being inactive in finding these kids.

"You can tell by the packed room that this is something a lot of people care about," Ward 8 D.C. Councilmember Trayvon Whitesaid in a report from News One. "Over the past couple of years, I’ve been seeing a lot of the postings, hearing from a lot of family members, going to a lot of prayer vigils. There's been an epidemic of missing persons in the Washington D.C. area."

Since the outcry, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser has created a task force in charge of rescuing missing teens.

"If we really want to help solve this problem and bring down the numbers, we have to break the cycle of young people, especially young girls, who repeatedly run away from home," Kevin Harris, a spokesman for the mayor, said.