Mentally Disabled Teen Goes Missing After Release From Detroit Detention Center
DETROIT (WWJ) - Police are asking for the public's assistance in locating a 17-year-old boy who went missing after being released from a detention center in Detroit.
Police said 17-year-old Nicholas Lillard was last seen around 2:30 p.m. Friday leaving the center, but released few other details. Lillard is described as cognitively impaired, with the mental capacity of a 9-year-old, according to police.
Mesha Lillard, the teen's mother, said the whole situation started on Wednesday when her son climbed out of a bathroom window and ran away. She said she filed a missing persons report, and her son was later picked up by police for attempting to break into someone's home.
"He wanted to stay there because he was cold," Mesha Lillard told WWJ Newsradio 950. "When they explained to the homeowners of his mental status and that he wasn't really trying to hurt anyone, they said they didn't want to press charges. That's the last information that I received...they detained him in the detention center."
Mesha Lillard said the next thing she knew, Child Protective Services was knocking on her door.
"I didn't even know that he had been released until Child Protective Services came [Friday] evening, about 5 o'clock, and they said that they had got a referral that Nicholas had nowhere to go. I said 'What do you mean? He lives right here,'" she said.
Mesha Lillard said the worker called around and discovered that her son had been at a detention center on the city's east side, on Mound Road between Nevada and Davison, and that he was released at 2:30 that afternoon.
"So my question was 'Who released him? Who signed for him? Where did he go?' and they said 'Well, he was grown and we told him he could go.' They said they only asked him two questions, his name and his birthdate and if he could answer both of them, that's enough for them to release him," she said.
WWJ contacted police for comment, but several officers declined to issue a statement.
Mesha Lillard said she's now living every parent's worse nightmare.
"Nicholas does not know his way around the city. He doesn't even know his way around his own neighborhood and he's been living here for 17 years," she said. "He has never been on the east side, he has never been on a public bus, any of that. It's like throwing a 3-year-old out in the street and saying 'Go find your mother.'"
Nicholas Lillard is described as 5' 10" tall and 160 pounds with a medium brown complexion, small build, black hair and brown eyes.. He was last seen wearing a black nylon jacket.
Anyone with information on Lillard's whereabouts is urged to contact police at 313-596-5640.