Less than 24 hours after she was reported missing, 15-year-old Maria Leggiero of the Braselton area was found safe Wednesday, police said.
The girl was found in a park near the Hamilton Mill area, police told Channel 2 Action News. She’s now at home with her mother.
Earlier Wednesday, Lanier Christian Academy in Flowery Branch, where Leggiero attends school, called off classes as students and parents helped police in the search.
“We just want our daughter home,” Maria’s father, Jamie Leggiero, told Channel 2 before she was found. “We pray it happens soon and we get her home.”
The girl was last seen Tuesday playing soccer in the backyard of the home in the Legends neighborhood in Chateau Elan Estates about 4 p.m., her mother said in a Facebook post.
Although the case was originally considered an abduction, it was later treated as a runaway, Braselton police Assistant Chief Lou Solis told Channel 2. There had been several sightings of the girl in the Hamilton Mill area, including one Wednesday morning, Solis said.
The GBI, Gwinnett police and the Barrow County Sheriff’s Office helped in the search.
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