(Trends Wide) — Jashyah Moore, who disappeared from her New Jersey home nearly a month ago, was found safe in New York City, authorities said Thursday.
“Jashyah is currently safe and all appropriate services are being provided to her. She will be returned to New Jersey shortly,” Acting Essex County Prosecutor Theodore N. Stephens said in a statement.
The 14-year-old was last seen in a grocery store. delicatessen near his home in East Orange, NJ, on the morning of October 14.
The news comes after the reward for any information on his whereabouts increased to $ 20,000.
“She didn’t get away. They kidnapped her. I don’t know who did it, but we’re looking for you,” her mother, Jamie Moore, said at a news conference Tuesday.
Teams from multiple counties had spent part of Saturday using sonar technology at a pond in a nearby park to search for the teenager.
“This reminds us that the lives of black and brown girls are just as important as the lives of everyone else,” Prosecutor Stephens said last week. “And we know that Gabby Petito, who is a very, very, notorious case that was constantly in the news, brought results and information. So we hope that today’s effort also brings some information so that we can find young Jashyah.” .
While more attention and urgency has been given to the cases of missing white women, people of color are disappearing at a disproportionate rate. Blacks make up 35% of missing person reports, but they are only 13% of the US population, according to 2020 FBI data. Whites, meanwhile, make up 54% of missing person reports and 76% of the United States population.
– Trends Wide’s Laura Studley contributed to this report.
