New York

8-Year-Old Girl Found 13 Hours After Vanishing in New Jersey Is Hospitalized for Evaluation

What to Know

  • Nevaeh Blaine had been playing at a local playground Sunday morning when she disappeared; her mother reported her missing
  • The 8-year-old girl was found safe at Newark Penn Station about 13 hours later; the circumstances remain under investigation
  • The girl is being evaluated at a hospital

An 8-year-old girl who had been missing for more than 12 hours in New Jersey before she was found safe at Newark Penn Station has been hospitalized for evaluation as authorities work to piece together the mysterious case.

It wasn't immediately clear if Nevaeh Blaine had been reunited with her family by Monday morning; a good Samaritan found her at Newark Penn around 11 p.m. Sunday, about 13 hours after her mother told police she had vanished. 

Mayor Ras Baraka said the woman who took the girl was a family friend and the case appears to have been some sort of misunderstanding. Baraka said Blaine was not abducted, which is why there was no Amber Alert. No arrests have been made, but the case remains under investigation. 

Blaine was found after a group of dedicated community mothers put out their phone numbers for anyone to call them with information regarding her whereabouts. One woman called their tip line and sent them over to Newark Penn. The group of moms rushed over there and split up to try to find the girl. 

Janice Reddick was the one to find her. She told News 4 that she saw the child sitting on a bench waiting for a bus. 

"I walked up to her and said 'Is your name Nevaeh?'" Reddick said. "She said yes and I snatched her off the bench and I ran with her."

Reddick said she took the girl directly to police. 

Reddick said Blaine's heart was beating fast, she was a little dirty and she was trembling a bit when she found her, but she was otherwise OK. Reddick said a woman tried to stop her from taking Blaine. It wasn't immediately clear who the woman was or the relationship, if any, she had with Blaine. 

The woman hasn't been charged, according to Newark police. Detectives are working to determine whether charges will be filed. 

Blaine had been playing at the community playground at the Joseph P. Bradley Court Housing Projects on Munn Avenue in Newark around 9:45 a.m. Sunday when she left with the woman. A witness told police they saw her walking in the direction of a bodega on Blank Road. 

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