Police are searching for a man after a young girl with special needs said she was the victim of an alarming attack on her way home from school.
An 11-year-old girl was walking home from Allapatah Middle School when, she told police, she was approached by a couple inside a car last Thursday afternoon.
Miami Police spent Tuesday morning canvassing the area with flyers featuring the sketch of the man suspected in the attack in order to inform the neighborhood of this sexual predator. Miami Police Sgt. Freddie Cruz said, “This is a very disturbing case. First off all, it’s not very common at all.”
The little girl, who is developmentally delayed, told police a man and a woman drove her to an abandoned house where the man sexually assaulted her. “Gets picked up by a couple, a white female and a white male, possibly Latin,” said Cruz. Police also released a sketch of the home where the child said she was taken to and sexually battered.
The girl’s mother said it usually takes her daughter only six minutes to get home. When her daughter never made it home that Thursday afternoon, she called police. The mother told 7News the dispatcher told her she needed to reach out to Miami-Dade Schools Police.
The mother then went to the school and frantically asked for help.
Pastor Harriette Wilson-Greene, along with others from the community, helped the family in the search. “I came immediately to the house, and we begin to look and searched the area because we were concerned. We know she’s not that type of child to run away,” said Wilson-Greene.
Regina Davis, a family friend, said, “We knocked on doors. We walked through the cars. We turned over bushes. We did everything we could, from the school she attended to her home.”
While police were at her home gathering information on the child’s whereabouts, the little girl showed up. She was dropped off somewhere nearby, nearly four hours after the search began. Police said, while she was gone something terrible had happened to her. Cruz said, “Broad daylight, 2:45 in the afternoon, took her to a possibly abandoned home where she was sexually battered several times … This is quite disturbing for us.”
Police are now searching for the man and his accomplice. “She’s hurt. She’s angry. She’s confused because there are so many questions that she don’t have answers to,” said Wilson-Greene.
A family friend, Helen Meadows, asked for the public’s help. “If you know or saw something, anything that can help this parent who is concerned and hurt about her child, please give that information,” she said. “If it were to happen to you, you would want someone to help you also.”
Family and friends are thankful the little girl arrived home safely. But police fear these predators could strike again, so they are imploring the public to come forward with the smallest tip, especially since school is out of session for summer break.
If you have any information on the identity of this man, call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS. Remember, you can always remain anonymous, and you may be eligible for a reward.