Fact check: Various reports of missing girl are hoaxes, mislead communities

Molly Stellino, USA TODAY

August 24, 2022 at 12:59 PM·4 min read

The claim: A missing girl was found in several US cities

Similar posts about a young girl have been appearing in Facebook groups around the country.

The post shows a picture of a young girl in blue footie pajamas, drinking from a red sippy cup. The caption usually reads, "Found this girl wandering behind our apartment today. ... Please help me find her parents."

Versions of the claim have been posted to more than two dozen Facebook groups.

Various posts say she is in Springfield, Missouri; Rome, Georgia; Dover, Delaware and Port Richey, Florida. The story popped up in Canadian groups, too.

The posts amassed hundreds of shares in a few days. But there's no proof any such situation occured.

Police departments from cities where the posts circulated told USA TODAY that the post is illegitimate or that they did not receive reports of a missing juvenile matching the description of the child in the post.

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USA TODAY reached out to several social media users who shared the posts for comment.

Police departments confirm there is no truth to posts

The story of the found girl is part of a social media phenomenon in which users post the same attention-grabbing event in reference to multiple cities.

USA TODAY has debunked other examples, including the claim that a knife-wielding man was going door-to-door, someone abandoned a baby on a doorstep and a woman stole a baby from a hospital.

Officials say there's no truth to the latest claim, either.

Greenville Police Department Sgt. Johnathan Bragg told USA TODAY the department hasn't received any recent reports of a found child. A post about the missing girl in pajamas was shared in Greenville but has since been taken down.

A Milwaukee Police officer climbs out of a boarded up home at 2106 N. 33rd St. while searching for Alexis Patterson Tuesday May 7, 2002. Patterson was last seen on May 3, 2002.

Assistant Chief Debbie Burnett at the Rome Police Department said in an emailed statement, “From what we can find this is not legitimate.”

Cyrus Robinson, chief of police at the Port Richey Police Department, told USA TODAY no incident matching the post's description occurred in Port Richey.

Ryan Schmid, public information officer for the Dover Police Department, said the department has no reports of a found or missing child matching the post.

KY3, a local news station in Springfield, Missouri, debunked the posts after the found toddler claim appeared in local yard sales groups. The station warned people that the posts were "phishing attempts" and that the user usually tried to solicit people’s bank account information.

Cris Swaters, the public affairs officer for the Springfield Police Department, said in an emailed statement that her department received no reports of a found child and currently does not have any cases of missing children.

Fact check: Chain of posts about a man with a knife going door-to-door is a hoax

USA TODAY found multiple instances in which the user created the Facebook account on the same day the post was shared, a common characteristic of spam accounts.

USA TODAY was unable to confirm the origin of the picture shown in the scam posts.

Our rating: False

Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that a girl looking for her parents was found in several U.S. cities. Multiple police departments said there is no truth to the claim, and there is no credible evidence showing that the claim is true.

Our fact-check sources:

Johnathan Bragg, Aug. 18, Phone interview with USA TODAY
Debbie Burnett, Aug. 18, Email interview with USA TODAY
Cris Swaters, Aug. 18, Email interview with USA TODAY
Cyrus Robinson, Aug. 24, Email interview with USA TODAY
Ryan Schmid, Aug. 24, Phone interview with USA TODAY
KY3, Aug. 15, On Your Side: Missing child alert scam
Facebook search for “girl wondering,” accessed Aug. 19
USA TODAY, Aug. 11, Fact check: Chain of posts about a man with a knife going door-to-door is a hoax
USA TODAY, Aug. 2, Fact check: Newborn abandoned in Mesa, Arizona, sparks string of false claims in other cities
USA TODAY, July 19, Fact check: Image shows baby kidnapped in Philippines in 2016, not any recent US incident

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Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Scam posts claim a girl was found in various US cities

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The claim: A missing girl was found in several US cities

Police departments confirm there is no truth to posts

Our rating: False

Our fact-check sources:

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