Missing Twelve-year-old found at Wal-Mart

From FoxNews:

A 12-year-old girl who may have been abducted by a 25-year-old co-worker of her brothers was found alive late Wednesday in South Carolina.

Child Protective Services took temporary custody of the girl, Margarita Aguilar-Lopez (search), after finding her at a Wal-Mart at 8:30 p.m in Easley, S.C.

She was staying with her brothers when they left her with Antonio Paulino-Perez, who has since been arrested for interference with child custody. She had been missing since Monday, but the brothers waited to report her disappearance until Tuesday.

When asked about the delay, one brother told police that he and his brother were "too intoxicated and could not remember." Police did not immediately release the brothers' ages or occupation.

Margarita's parents are in Mexico. She is an illegal immigrant living with her two brothers and her sister-in-law at the motel. Margarita babysits her brother's children while the family's adults work at migrant labor in Ruskin, said Major William Tokajer, Bradenton police spokesman.

One has to wonder how much safer she was with her brothers than with Paulino-Perez.

Coverage: Florida Cracker

Posted by Danny Carlton at April 28, 2005 10:30 AM