COBB COUNTY, Ga. — An 11-year-old girl who never made it home from school Thursday is safe with her parents. Police say it appears she had been wandering all night alone.
Channel 2’s Bryan Mims reported on the search for the missing girl as breaking news on Channel 2 Action News This Morning.
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Lyri is a student at Campbell Middle School in Smyrna. Surveillance video shows her walking along Atlanta Road near the school late Thursday afternoon. She was last seen on video walking across Paces Ferry Road and Spring Hill Parkway just after 6 p.m., about two-and-a-half miles from her home.
Police said at around 7:50 this morning, a man working at an office building spotted her walking along Interstate North Parkway and approached her.
They said she told the man she was cold. She had a cell phone, but it was dead, so the man used his phone to call the child’s mother.
“Early account says she’s been walking all night,” said Smyrna Police Major Louis Defense. “She was disoriented and lost and, honestly, she’s 11 years old. That’s expected.”
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He said the girl typically takes the bus home, but her parents pick her up when she has after-school activities. He said it’s possible she was confused about how she was supposed to get home.
The Cobb County Police Department and the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office joined in the search.
“They all came to support and try to help locate this child,” Defense said. “We deployed our canine , our real time crime center, drone.”
He said the girl’s parents took her to a hospital for an evaluation, but it appeared she was healthy and even asked for a chocolate chip waffle from Waffle House.
“So as soon she’s able with her parents, I promised her that I would buy her a chocolate chip waffle at Waffle House,” Defense said.
It’s unclear why she walked away from school and didn’t ask for help earlier. Defense said police plan to continue talking with the girl and her parents to try to get some answers, but said they may never know why.
“At this point, we’re just elated that she’s safe and sound,” he said.
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