Missing 7-year-old girl with autism found safe, coaxed out of stream by city police
Jul. 27—SCRANTON — A 7-year-old girl with autism missing for a few hours Monday was reunited with her family after authorities found her standing in roughly chest high water in Roaring Brook, city police said.
The girl, whose identity was not released, was spotted by police shortly before 10 a.m. along the bank of the stream near the East Scranton Little League Field on Richter Avenue.
Peering at her from a distance on the bank's steep rocky slope, Detective Gina DeNaples first thought the figure might have been an officer tasked with helping find the missing child. She waved. The person in the water did not wave back.
"So I climbed back up, walked down the road, and then went back down into the area where I thought I saw something," DeNaples said.
It was the girl they were seeking. DeNaples got to work.
The juvenile was last seen by her parents at around 7 a.m. in the 1700 block of East Gibson Street, Police Chief Leonard Namiotka said. She is autistic and non-verbal. Her family had only been here for about a week. Police declined to identify them Monday. Attempts to reach the child's family were unsuccessful.
Lackawanna County 911 dispatchers issued a look-out notice over the police radio with her description — four feet tall with light skin, a blue shirt and multi-colored berets in her hair.
Before she was reported missing, an officer spotted someone fitting her description near the East Scranton Little League field and police — aided by the city fire department and Commonwealth Health Emergency Medical Services paramedics — concentrated their search there, Lt. Michael Perry said.
They'd heard the girl likes water, so Perry suggested that DeNaples check along the riverbank, where DeNaples spotted her.
Next came the task of getting her out.
DeNaples said she sat on a rock at the edge of the water and held out her phone, hoping the promise of video games might entice the child to come closer.
"I was showing her my badge and telling her I was there to help her," DeNaples said. "And she got close to me."
The child got out of the water and onto a rock with DeNaples. However, she said the 7-year-old became startled as soon as they started to move up the embankment to safety and ran back into the stream.
DeNaples decided she'd go in after her. The water rose up to the middle of her thigh and roughly up to the child's chest.
As the officer slowly approached, she reassuringly talked to the girl and stretched out her hand until they reunited.
"I think she felt a little safer," she said.
Together, the two walked back to land, where the fire department helped get the girl up the embankment, where her family was waiting. EMS examined her, but she was fine and returned to her mother, Namiotka said.
The chief applauded the work his officers did, saying DeNaples was able to keep her calm so the girl could be rescued.
DeNaples said she was on an adrenaline rush.
"You know, like, it all happen so quickly," she said. "I'm just very thankful that it had a happy ending."
Contact the writer: jkohut@timesshamrock.com, 570-348-9100, x5187; @jkohutTT on Twitter.
