Girl Found After Going Missing From Newark Playground, Cops Say
NEWARK, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- A Newark girl has been found after going missing while playing with friends on Sunday morning.
Rhashedah Holliway said her daughter Nevaeh Johnson, 8, went out to play in a community playground around 9:30 a.m. Sunday.
Some 15 minutes later, friends said they saw her walking out of the playground and towards a grocery store on Maybam and Tremont Ave.
"She's my only niece. I miss her," Takeeta Holifield said.
Holifield was in tears, desperate to find her niece.
"We're tired, we're aggravated. It's getting later and later, and she's not appearing," she said.
The girl was eventually found later Sunday night, according to police.
Police said Nevaeh was at the Bradley Court Community Housing Playground. Holifield said a family friend was babysitting when she went missing.
"She was watcher her and let her walk off," she said.
As CBS2's Reena Roy reported, police spent the day combing the area for any clues that might lead to Nevaeh. They were even searching dumpsters. Cops were seen carrying a trash bag away from a police truck.
"I got grand kids and I put my foot down and came running because we need to find this baby. She's a baby. She's a child. She needs to be back home, wherever she's at," Charlene Williams said.
By Sunday night, sanitation workers with heavy equipment had joined forces with police.
Many also wondered why more wasn't being done to find the girl, and had called on officials to issue an alert.
"I came from another town here, because I saw on Facebook to help with the search, and I really feel like because the neighborhood the child comes from they're not doing enough," Pat Droste said.
As the search unfolded, the community banded together to canvass the area and search apartments alongside cops.
"We need to find this baby, she's a baby, she's a child. She needs to be back home wherever she's at," Charlene Williams said.