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Foster girls found safe

 

 

The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office says authorities have found four girls who apparently ran away from a facility for foster children near Tampa.

Spokeswoman Debbie Carter said in an email that the children were found Friday evening as they tried to climb back over a fence at the facility.

Carter says the girls originally ran away to a nearby park and broke into an abandoned residence. She says the girls stayed there all day and were attempting to return to A Kids Place when they were discovered.

The girls are ages 13, 11, 10 and 4. Carter says they will be interviewed by detectives and medially cleared.

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Friday: 4:35 p.m.

Officials say they have not yet found four girls who apparently ran away from a facility for foster children near Tampa. A $5,000 reward is being offered for information about their whereabouts.

Hillsborough County Sheriff's Col. Donna Lusczynski said during an afternoon news conference that detectives have interviewed school classmates and other foster children.

"Our concern obviously gets greater the more time they're gone," she said.

The four girls — three sisters and a fourth, unrelated girl — put pillows under their sheets Thursday night to make it look as if they were in bed. They then slipped out a window and around a fence to leave A Kids Place, a facility east of downtown Tampa.

The girls are ages 13, 11, 10 and 4.

Carter said 4-year-old Allison Nelson, 10-year-old Anabella Gonzalez and 11-year-old Heavenlynn Gonzalez are sisters. They are with 13-year-old Ashlyn Smith.

Officials at the home told authorities they didn't know what the girls were wearing when they disappeared. They have no medical issues or disabilities and don't take any medication.

A woman who answered the phone at A Kids Place declined to answer a reporter's questions.

A Kids Place opened in 2009. Then, it was described in local news reports as a $5.2-million, 60-bed facility that serves as a temporary shelter for children from birth to 17. The facility is where law enforcement brings children in the first traumatic hours after they are removed from their homes.



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