The 13-year-old Turlock girl who was reported missing Saturday was located late that night at a Modesto residence, and picked up by her parents Sunday morning.
Kaitlyn Miller, legal name Kaitlyn Riddle, was found safe by the Modesto Police Department after some hunting by her parents. Amy Miller, the girl’s mother, saw Kaitlyn go to sleep in her bed with her baby niece at approximately 9:30 p.m. Friday night. Just a few hours later, at around 4 a.m. Saturday morning, Amy heard the sound of the baby crying and went in to check in on the girls. It was then that she realized her daughter, Kaitlyn, was missing.
The Turlock Police Department spoke with the Millers shortly after their daughter’s disappearance and collected a photo of Kaitlyn from the family, but because Kaitlyn was not considered “at-risk” and because signs pointed to her having run away, TPD did not perform an active search. Amy and her husband, Monty Miller, began looking at AT&T phone records to track their daughter’s cell phone calls. After seeing communication with a specific phone number, Amy repeatedly called the number until a young girl picked up the phone.
The young girl explained to Amy that she knew where Kaitlyn was and her and and one of the girls’ aunt had come to pick up Kaitlyn a few hours before. Kaitlyn was then allegedly left at a Modesto residence without this “acquaintance” as the mom described her.
“I can look to see what numbers was last called on [Kaitlyn’s] phone, and I had called that number, and the little girl picked up, finally, and she said, ‘I’m home but Kaitlyn is in Modesto at another girl’s house and the aunt had picked us up, and I took off and Kaitlyn stayed,’” said Amy. “So I had the little girl call the other person, because I didn’t have their number… and they were lying to me, they were saying my daughter wasn’t there they didn’t know where she was, and it was a really big issue, so this morning, I called the (Modesto) police, and they went over there, and yes she was there, it took about an hour for them to give her up, but she was there.”
Prior to calling the Modesto Police Department on Sunday morning, Amy had tried contacting the Turlock Police Department late Saturday night, but because of another incident that occurred that night, where a man was fatally hit by a train, TPD did not respond to her.
In the morning, after contacting MPD, Modesto police officers were able to locate Kaitlyn and pick her up. The Millers then went to Modesto at around 9 a.m. Sunday morning to pick up their daughter from MPD.
Amy was upset that a woman, an aunt of one of the girls Kaitlyn was with, would come to pick up the 13-year-old girl from her Turlock home in the middle of the night.
“I tried to tell the cops that I want to press charges because [the people at the Modesto residence] knew that my little girl was a runaway right? Because I reported her at 5 o’clock in the morning… well 4 o’clock actually, when I found out she was gone,” said Amy. “Obviously someone knew, but the cop said that he couldn’t really prove anything so I couldn’t press any charges.”
The Millers have not been able to speak with the alleged aunt who picked up their daughter. Currently, Kaitlyn is home safe with her family, okay, but exhausted according to her mother.
“She’s good,” said Amy Miller. “She was found at a place where we had no clue where she would be. Yeah, she’s alright, she’s really tired… she’s okay. Nothing happened to her.”
Amy Miller said that her daughter’s intentions were harmless, and those of a 13-year-old girl going to hang out with, “not a friend but an acquaintance.”
“She just started talking with this girl and then ended up taking off with her,” said Amy Miller, who described Saturday that this was uncharacteristic of her daughter.
