CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. (CBS12) — A missing runaway teenager from Florida has been safely located in Georgia after a two-week search, involving seven agencies, that took her from South Florida to the suburbs of Atlanta.
The Coral Springs Police Department announced on Wednesday that missing teenager Skylee Merino has been located in Georgia.
The Police Department said that on Wednesday, the Rockdale County Sheriff’s Office discovered Skylee in a suburb outside of Atlanta, thanks to the work of detectives from the Coral Springs Police Department’s Crimes Against Persons Unit.
Skylee was reported missing on April 21 by her parents, the report states. Over the past two weeks, detectives learned that Skylee had accessed her social media accounts and that on April 25, she attended a party in Fort Lauderdale with friends and spent the night at a friend’s house in Boca Raton.
The following day, she went paddleboarding at Lake Boca during the Boca Bash event.
Skylee had allegedly informed her friends about her intention to stop using social media to avoid being located.
It was reported that by April 26, she realized law enforcement was searching for her and subsequently left her friend’s residence.
Detectives later found that she had visited a Starbucks in Boca Raton, where she met an adult male before leaving with him.
On May 1, police identified and interviewed the 19-year-old male with whom Skylee spent approximately two days in Delray Beach. They later traveled to Orlando, where Skylee requested to be dropped off at the Mai Hana Hotel. She was last reported to have stayed there with another unidentified adult male.
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Police said that throughout the incident, Skylee had been presenting herself as 18 years old and using the alias “Valery.”
The department said that it worked closely with several agencies, including the Broward Sheriff’s Office, Boca Raton Police Department, Delray Beach Police Department, Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, Orange County Sheriff’s Office, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
It was reported that Skylee was found unharmed and is in good health. Her parents have been notified, and arrangements are being made for their reunion in Georgia.