MIAMI – Police in Miami announced they had located a missing 11-year-old girl.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement issued a missing child alert for Jayla Jones on Monday.
The girl was found near Northeast 62nd Street and North Miami Avenue, just blocks from her home.
Kim Myers told Local 10 News’ Liane Morejon she found Jayla at a park.
Where the girl was during the time she was missing is still unclear.
After being located, Jayla spent hours at the Miami Police Department being questioned.
All her family knows is that the girl is safe.
According to family members, Jayla told her mother that she was taking out the trash sometime Monday morning and never returned.
“Our family is not complete. We need her to come home. She’s not with a family friend. She’s not with anyone we know of,” Jayla’s great aunt, Doris Jones, said earlier in the day. “I didn’t get any sleep last night. They didn’t get any sleep last night. Nobody should be sleeping, because if it was somebody else’s kid, they’d want everybody in the world to help them find them.”
While police did respond to the complex on Monday to help in the search, Jayla’s family initially said they felt officers could be doing more to help bring her back home.
Miami Police Chief Jorge Colina held a news conference Tuesday afternoon about Jayla’s disappearance.
He said the department is being assisted by the Secret Service and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and the FBI is also likely to get involved with the case.
“Her family is incredibly concerned for her, as we are,” Colina said.