Missing 10-Year-Old Spring Valley Girl Found
SPRING VALLEY, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- A 10-year-old girl who disappeared in Spring Valley has been found and is being reunited with her family, officials said.
Police are categorizing the disappearance of Kelly Rivera-Pillco as a runaway case, officials said.
She was last seen at 8:15 a.m. Monday at her bus stop at Bethune Boulevard and Ben Wild Road. Kelly never got on the bus and never made it to school, according to police.
Witness Selven Medina, who works nearby, said he saw Kelly hail a cab, get inside and take off.
Police said someone gave Kelly cab fare to Manhattan.
The Spring Valley police chief said investigators were able to track down that cab driver, who said he dropped Kelly off in Manhattan, CBS2's Janelle Burrell reported.
Kelly had been in communication with police via social media and was safe, the chief said.
Kelly's mother, Isabella, was frantic, worried and wanted her daughter back home.
She said she wasn't alarmed at first when she got home Monday afternoon because she thought her daughter was at an after-school program. It wasn't until 4:30 p.m. Monday that she realized something was wrong.
Soon after, she got a message from Kelly, claiming she was with her father, who lives in Queens.
"I said put your father [on], and she said, 'No, no, no. My father is not here,'" she told 1010 WINS' Glenn Schuck.
The girl's father, Dino Rivera, told Schuck he doesn't know where his daughter is and that he hasn't seen her since last year.
On Monday night, at least three law enforcement agencies were out looking for Kelly.
"Going door-to-door, we have K-9 out trying to track her steps in the last area where she was, and basically stopping cars to see if anyone has seen her," Det. Reginald Anderson, of the Spring Valley Police Department, said.
Neighbors also joined police in the search.
"She's a nice girl," a neighbor, named Livia, told WCBS 880's Sean Adams.
"I don't know what happened," another neighbor said. "She's good girl."
Police say Pillco does not have a history of running away.