Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Gene Kennedy reportingA Syracuse girl is in state custody tonight, while social workers investigate details of her reported disappearance.
That 12-year-old girl never came home from school Thursday afternoon. Thursday night her parents called police, prompting a massive search. Hundreds of people in the community helped out. And now today--relief.
It turns out Cassie DeGeorgio went to her aunt's house in Ogden. The aunt called the girl's mom around 1:00 this morning and said she's safe and sound.
The community is breathing a sigh of relief after hundreds of people searched the streets overnight with flyers in hand.
"We've got the area saturated where she lives. Pretty good on door to door, really good. Don't be afraid to look in parks."
Volunteers: "We have a kid the same age, and asked if we could help. So here we are."
Two- to three-hundred volunteers rallied together overnight to find Cassie DeGeorgio. Police say the 12 year-old has a history of running away from home.
Police believe she ran away from home and walked 15 miles to get there, going through Riverdale along State Route 126. Residents saw the girl walking alone.
Lt. Tracy Jensen, Syracuse Police Dept. "I just got off the phone with Weber County and they received two calls of a girl walking on Riverdale Road and Well Avenue around 11:30 tonight, matching her description."
But the girl told police a very different story.
Det. Mark Sessions, Syracuse Police Dept.: "She had made an initial claim she had been abducted in Syracuse, and then raped somewhere along the way, and that she got away from the suspect."
Det. Mark Sessions, Syracuse Police Dept.: "They found no trauma to her body so she was released to me."
Then she told detective Mark Sessions the truth.
Det. Mark Sessions, Syracuse Police Dept.: "She was supposed to turn something into her mom from the school, and the mom did not receive it, and the teacher found it. So she is upset that her parents would be upset at her, so she didn't want to go home."
Dirk, Family's Bishop: "Obviously there's some heart-rending that's gone on and they need to resolve those."
Nonetheless, the family's bishop expressed how grateful the DeGeorgio's are for community like Syracuse, where people rallied together for a child they didn't know.
Once police picked up the 12 year-old last night, they took her to Archway, which is a juvenile detention facility. She spent the night there.
The family's bishop says it will likely be a few days before Cassie is re-united with her parents.
The Department of Child and Family Services will be investigating this case.
