Farmington girl found after dayslong search, tips from community
Mar. 24—After law enforcement received several leads from across the state, a 12-year-old from Farmington has been found safe Friday.
Police believed that Lisa Mae-Gladys Pierce could have been in St. Joseph after she reportedly left her home with 18-year-old David Allen Jennings.
She was found in Park Hills, Missouri, the Farmington Police Department said in a release on Facebook. Jennings is still missing, the department said in a release.
Jennings may have family that resides in the St. Joseph area, which led police to suspect they could make their way to this area.
Sgt. Shane Hux of the Missouri State Highway Patrol's Troop H said that the state law enforcement agency was in contact with Farmington police throughout the case. When it comes to an endangered person advisory, which Farmington police issued Tuesday, local law enforcement and media outlets work together to put out information quickly and alert the public.
"We try to get a vehicle description, a photograph of the missing person and an address," Hux said. "If they don't have that, it's kind of a needle in a haystack because St Joe's a big area.
Farmington Police Chief Chris Bullock said the department received numerous tips from all over the state, and each was helpful in the investigation.
"We follow up on all the tips that we get, we then verify or debunk them," Bullock said. "With something like this, you get a lot of calls ... it's been very helpful."
Pierce was described in a press release as having "a diminished mental capacity and may not be able to make rational decisions."
Bullock backed the statement about the investigation.
"She's 12 years old and probably cannot make rational decisions on her own. I would say any time you put a 12-year-old with an 18-year-old, I can see nothing good that's going to come of that," Bullock said.
Hux said the situation raises a red flag.
"Unless they're related, like with a brother and sister, that's different. But if they're not related, that connection is not there ... you just wonder why they would be together," Hux said.
Before the endangered person advisory was canceled, Bullock said morale for investigators in the case was high as they followed several different leads.
Bullock said the department is holding onto case details for the sake of the investigation, but he said they had leads and information guiding them.
"We're suspecting they probably have some resources here locally ... somebody is kind of keeping them up, hiding them out ... or I think we would have run into them by now," Bullock said before the advisory was canceled.
Riley Funk can be reached at riley.funk@newspressnow.com.
