Missing 2-Year-Old Found Safe After Family Reports Concerns Due to ‘Issues With Father’

James Brick Edwards, the father of a 2-year-old girl reported missing and later found safe. Floyd County Police Department

A 2-year-old girl from Georgia has been found safe after police made a public appeal to help locate the missing girl.

The Floyd County Police Department initially said the girl was missing and last seen in East Rome earlier Thursday, Sept. 12. About an hour later, the department announced that she had been found safe.

It’s not clear how long the girl Bryleigh Edwards had been missing.

In the first Twitter post, police said that the girl’s family members were “concerned for her welfare due to issues with the father.”

The father was identified as James Brick Edwards and was described as having tattoos on his face and arms.

“Police are searching for a 2 y/o who was last seen in East Rome. Family are concerned for her welfare due to issues with the father. Brilee Edwards may be wearing navy blue shirt and light color shorts with flip flops. Father is James Brick Edwards: tattoos on his face and arms.”

An hour later, the department wrote in another post: “FOUND SAFE: officers have made contact with both man and child. thank you for your help.”

Sgt. Chris Fincher told THV11 that responding officers said they “did not indicate anything extreme regarding the child” and that the father was just “late returning the child.”

Missing Children

There were 424,066 missing children reported in the FBI’s National Crime Information Center in 2018, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). Under federal law, when a child is reported missing to law enforcement they must be entered into the database. In 2017, there were 464,324 entries.

“This number represents reports of missing children. That means if a child runs away multiple times in a year, each instance would be entered into NCIC separately and counted in the yearly total. Likewise, if an entry is withdrawn and amended or updated, that would also be reflected in the total,” the center notes on its website.

“Unfortunately, since many children are never reported missing, there is no reliable way to determine the total number of children who are actually missing in the U.S.,” NCMEC (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children) added.

In 2018, the center said it assisted officers and families with the cases of more than 25,000 missing children. In those cases, 92 percent were endangered runaways, and 4 percent were family abductions.

The center said that it participates in the Amber Alert Program, which is a voluntary partnership between numerous entities including broadcasters, transportation agencies, and law enforcement agencies. The Amber Alert Program issues urgent bulletins in the most serious child abduction cases.

According to the NCMEC, to date, 941 children have been successfully recovered as a result of the Amber Alert Program.

The center notes that of the more than 23,500 runaways reported in 2018, about one in seven were likely victims of child sex trafficking.