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Teen found after search says she was kidnapped

Posted at 10:25 AM, Mar 14, 2016
and last updated 2016-03-15 14:04:31-04

A 15-year-old girl was found safe after a large search Monday morning - but there are still questions about where she went and how she got there.

The girl told police she was kidnapped and assaulted.

She was reported missing at about 7:10 a.m. from her home in the 12100 block of West Nevada Drive in Lakewood. 

Lakewood Police said she went outside to wait for her brother to pick her up for school around 7:15-7:30 a.m. Her mother went out to check on her and found her backpack, but she was gone. 

Police said they found her cell phone in park a few blocks away, near Nevada and West Alameda Parkway.

Police set up a command center at the park.

Police used bloodhounds to track her and canvassed the neighborhoods to find her.

Investigators say it is standard operating procedure to contact registered sex offenders in the area in cases like this.

Lakewood Police, the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, the FBI's Safe Streets Task Force and volunteers all helped search for the teen.

"We had traffic points set up around the city. We were stopping cars anywhere in the area, trying to look for anything that looked suspicious or matched even a little bit of the description that we do have," said Steve Davis, the spokesperson for Lakewood Police Department.

Police set up a checkpoint to question drivers passing through the area.

She was located a little before 1 p.m.

Investigators say she called police from the Walmart at 440 Wadsworth Blvd. and said she didn't know how she got there.

"The only description that she has given us of a possible suspect is a white or Hispanic male in his 20’s or 30’s dressed all in black. We have absolutely no vehicle description to go on as of yet. she has no recollection of how she ended up at the Walmart store on Wadsworth" Davis said.

Several detectives were still interviewing the teen late Monday afternoon.  

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