The U.S. Marshals Service reportedly said on Monday that the federal Memphis Safe Task Force last week helped find a Tennessee teenager who had been missing since September after receiving a tip that the teen was living in a van with their father in Honolulu, Hawaii.
According to a Marshals press release reported by The Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Monday, authorities in Tennessee first heard the missing 15-year-old might be in Tennessee on November 2, when the Memphis Safe Task Force received a tip through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), reporting the teenager was living in a van with their father, Alex Woods.
“The caller advised that the father was bringing the missing child to work with him recently and that they have been living in a minivan on the property of a construction site. The owner requested for them leave his property, but they refused to leave,” reported the Marshals, according to the outlet.
Three days later, the newspaper reported that the Memphis Police Department (MPD) asked the task force to assist with the case, which led the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to contact the tipster.
It was ultimately reported that the Honolulu Police Department found the teenager at a garage in Hawaii last Thursday. The teen is now slated for return to Tennessee.
The task force includes more than a dozen federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Department of War, the Department of Justice, Health and Human Services, the U.S. Marshals Service, Homeland Security, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and the FBI. It also includes Tennessee agencies, like the Tennessee Highway Patrol, and local law enforcement.
Governor Bill Lee recently said the task force would remain in Memphis “forever.” However, he later clarified that inter-agency cooperation among federal, state, and local law enforcement will continue, even if the number of federal personnel deployed to the city changes.
More than 100 missing children have been located since the task force was deployed in September. A total of 2,447 arrests have been made, coinciding with a 45.7 percent drop in reports of serious crime and a 19.6 percent drop in total police calls.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Tennessee National Guard Member” by Tennessee National Guard.
