WESTERN BUREAU:
THE FOUR Rusea's High School girls who were found last Friday, after they went missing for a week, are in custody and could remain there until a court appearance this week, the Montego Bay police said yesterday.
The nine graders from Hanover, the police say, are being held under the Juvenile Act, as teens in need of care and protection.
The police said that the four were found at a guest house in Montego Bay. It was initially reported that one was found in Negril but the police have since said all four were in Montego Bay. The police attributed their success in locating the girls to stories which appeared in The Gleaner last Thursday and Friday.
"Persons in the area saw the story and photos of the girls and alerted the police who subsequently acted on the information they received," said a police source. He added that it was good to know that the girls have been located, but said that police investigations would continue, as there were other issues to be unravelled.
The girls, whose ages range from 14 to 15, faced a second round of quizzing on Saturday. Detectives from the Montego Bay CIB tried to ascertain why they had left their homes and had not returned for a week, and what their activities were during that time.
The Immigration Department had intervened in the investigations to determine if the students had been recently issued any passport. They were not. Police say they did not find any travel documents belonging to the girls during their operation last Friday.
