Missing girl, 14, recovered at Calaveras home. Sleeping area found beneath trapdoor
A 14-year-old girl missing for more than a week was found Friday at a residence in the Calaveras County community of West Point, and three people were arrested, according to the Sheriff’s Office there.
The Sheriff’s Office posted on Facebook Monday that the teen, also a resident of West Point, was located “deep within the corners of two adjoining closets” where she was intentionally hiding among densely hanging clothes.
She was removed from the closet and found to be unharmed. As deputies continued to search the home for evidence, they found a hidden “trapdoor” that led to a makeshift sleeping area on the dirt floor under the house. There, they also found the girl’s phone.
The teen, who is not being identified by The Bee, had been missing since visiting a friend’s home in the community more than 70 miles northeast of Modesto. She had been given permission to spend a few nights. But when her mother went to pick her up, residents there said her daughter had left.
The girl’s parents immediately notified the Sheriff’s Office on Oct. 22. Deputies conducted an investigation that included contacting her friends, scouring social media, searching areas around her last known location, canvassing neighborhoods and obtaining search warrants to retrieve information from her cellular telephone.
Occupants of the friend’s residence said they last saw the missing girl walking down their driveway.
After more than a week of continued investigation, detectives obtained new information got a warrant to search the home where the girl had been given permission to stay. The residence already had been searched by patrol deputies and by detectives.
On the return visit Friday, detectives were met by the occupants in the front yard. They insisted that the girl was not there and that they had told the Sheriff’s Office everything they knew.
After the teen was found in the closet, West Point residents Isaiah Haggard, 20, and Annie Pearl Abernathy, 41, were arrested on charges including numerous counts of providing false information to a peace officer, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and felony child endangerment.
A third West Point resident, 34-year-old Jose Tinocopureco, was arrested on suspicion of providing false information to a peace officer and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Haggard and Abernathy are being held on $100,000 bail each. Tinocopureco was booked and released with a citation for the misdemeanor charges. Additional charges are expected as the investigation continues, the Sheriff’s Office said.
The initial report listed her as a voluntary or at-will missing person and she was considered a possible runaway juvenile, though an update to the circumstances surrounding the case is unknown.
