A 13-year-old girl who ran away from a rural Greenwood home nearly two months ago has been found.
Valentina LaCava turned herself into police in Chicago this weekend, and Johnson County Sheriff’s Office detectives immediately traveled to the area to bring her home, Sheriff Duane Burgess just after midnight Sunday. The investigation is ongoing, he said.
"We are extremely happy that Valentina LaCava is returning to Johnson County safely," Burgess said.
She was last seen leaving rural Greenwood in June.
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The sheriff’s office has dedicated extensive resources to finding her this summer, concentrating on who she was with and trying to track her. Other state and federal agencies were assisting in the search.
LaCava, who had lived in Indianapolis, was reported missing about 1 a.m. June 21 from the 5500 block of Watson Road, Greenwood. She was last seen getting into a car at a nearby intersection the night before.
About 9:30 p.m. June 20, a Greenwood man reported seeing a young girl matching her description get into an old, dirty, two-door Honda Civic, with damage to its front bumper, at the intersection of Watson Road and Possum Hollow Road, the same neighborhood the girl was reported missing from.
Investigators did not suspect that she was abducted or had become the victim of foul play, but they did believe she was in danger due to her age. She had a history of running away, and had not left any traces, physically or electronically, about her whereabouts or plans, they said during the search for her.
