A missing 13-year-old from the Pittsburgh area was finally found, to the relief of her worried parents. Their joy quickly disappeared, however, as officers informed them she was currently being held in an adult jail in Pennsylvania after lying to the police about her age following a shoplifting arrest.
Tabitha Clark, whose trace was lost on June 21, 2024, spent almost two months away from her parents before being incarcerated at Beaver County Jail surrounded by adults.
Highlights
- The missing 13-year-old girl, Tabitha Clark, was found in an adult jail after lying about her age and identity following a shoplifting arrest.
- Clark was held in Beaver County Jail after being listed as missing for almost two months before being identified and retrieved by her parents.
- The incident underscores the broader issue of missing persons in the U.S., with the Department of Justice reporting over 600,000 cases annually.
Nate Bible, a district attorney, was informed of her resemblance with a missing teenager, prompting him to investigate. Upon confirming his suspicions, he informed the parents, who were able to retrieve her from jail.
Clark’s charges have not been lifted, however, and are being transferred to juvenile court.
A missing 13-year-old girl from Pittsburgh was discovered in an adult prison under a fake name after she lied to the cops about her identity following a shoplifting arrest
Image credits: RDNE Stock project
The City of Pittsburgh’s official website first posted the missing person incident related to Tabitha Clark’s disappearance on June 23, 2024.
“Tabitha Clark is 5'7" with brown eyes and hair in long black braids with a blonde streak. She may be wearing sunglasses and was last wearing a pink head scarf with large flowers, a bluish sweatshirt and light blue slides that look like sharks,” the post stated.
Image credits: CBS News
“She was last seen in the Brighton Heights neighborhood on June 21, 2024 around 11:30 p.m. Tabitha is possibly headed to the downtown area.”
July came and went, and Clark’s parents received no new updates on the whereabouts of their daughter.
Image credits: CBS News
Detectives from the Pittsburgh Police's Special Victims Unit finally posted information on the case on August 6, stating that she was last seen around the North Side area. A new update came around mid-August when CCTV footage of her emerged in the city's Hill District.
Clark was arrested on August 17 for retail theft and gave officers a false identity, saying she was an 18-year-old named Mae Wilson and that she was homeless.
The teenage girl was finally reunited with her parents after someone inside the jail identified her from the images distributed by the media
Image credits: CBS News
Attorney Nate Bible stated that the teenager gave conflicting information to the officers, providing a false birth date at one point while also stating “at several points” that she was a minor.
Bible says that police initially offered to release her to her parents, but she then told them she was homeless.
Upon her identification, the attorney states that jail personnel immediately isolated her from the rest of the adult inmates in order to protect her from further harm.
Image credits: CBS News
Bible did not specify if Clark’s identity was discovered by employees or another prisoner.
Upon her successful identification and retrieval by her parents, the City of Pittsburgh updated their related post with the following:
“Tabitha Clark has been located and she is safe. Thank you to everyone who shared the information.”
Clark’s case is just one of many missing person incidents registered throughout the country, with the Department of Justice counting more than 600,000 cases each year
Image credits: CBS News
The 13-year-old’s disappearance in June 2024 coincided with an annual event in Pittsburgh’s Bloomfield neighborhood that aims to raise awareness for those missing in the area.
The event is held to raise awareness of the large number of missing person cases in the state.
“Pennsylvania faces a serious issue with missing persons. In 2023, the state reported over 9,000 missing person cases. This number includes both adults and children, with children making up nearly 60% of the total,” stated members of Lost and Found, a mobile app created to help families find their missing relatives.
Image credits: CBS News
The site World Population Review, which itself gets its data from the National Missing and Unidentified Persons (NamUS) database, revealed that Pennsylvania has registered more than 500 cases of lost individuals so far in 2024, a statistic that Clark was sadly a part of.
According to the data, the states with the highest number of incidents are California, with 3,362 cases, followed by Texas and Florida, with 2,585 and 1,744, respectively.
Netizens were glad to know the missing girl was safe, but many also theorized about the reasons behind her disappearance, believing it to be problems with her family
“Why would she rather be in jail than to be home? Something might not be right with her home life,” one reader argued.
“Some people that get reported missing may still be alive somewhere. Just choosing to stay missing/not contact their family,” another explained.
“A fair number go missing on purpose. They get sick of their lives and they just go out to buy a pack of cigarettes and never come back. They change their identities and just live out their lives under a different name,” a third one wrote.
“We need to look at the little ones in our own families and pray they aren’t heading in that direction,” said another reader.
"Lesson learned." Users were glad to know the girl had been found and hoped the experience taught her never to run away again
