A 12-year-old girl has been missing in the Bronx for almost a week, and her family has joined the search alongside the NYPD as investigators work to track down any leads. The case adds to a string of recent disappearances involving young girls across New York City this month.
Family members are actively searching for the girl, according to PIX11, which first reported on the case. The NYPD is also involved in the search, though further details about the circumstances of her disappearance were not immediately available.
How NYPD Missing Person Cases Typically Unfold
Under NYPD policy, family members do not have to wait any set period of time, including the commonly assumed 24 hours, before filing a missing person report, according to the NYPD. Cases that remain unresolved after initial neighborhood canvassing by precinct detectives are routinely transferred to the department's Missing Persons Squad for longer-term investigation after several weeks, per that same guidance.
Many families and members of the public expect an AMBER Alert the moment a child goes missing, but New York State restricts those emergency broadcasts to confirmed abduction cases where a minor is believed to be in imminent danger of serious bodily harm or death, according to Greece Police Department policy guidance. When a case does not meet that narrow threshold, the state instead offers a separate Missing Child Alert system through the Division of Criminal Justice Services for endangered individuals under 21, allowing agencies to distribute information to media without triggering an emergency broadcast override.
A Pattern of Missing Girls Across the City This Month
This Bronx case follows a string of similar searches across the five boroughs in recent days. The NYPD was searching for an 8-year-old girl, Avery DeJesus, missing in East New York, and a 13-year-old girl has been missing from Coney Island for nearly two weeks as police continue pleading for tips. A separate case last year involved a 13-year-old girl missing from the Bronx, showing that youth disappearances in the borough are not new.
Statewide, more than 10,000 children are reported missing across New York each year, according to WNBF News, citing the state's Missing Persons Clearinghouse, with roughly 94 percent of those cases ultimately classified as runaways. Nationally, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children assisted with 32,167 missing child cases in 2025 and resolved 90 percent of them, with runaway cases making up 92 percent of the total.
Why Extended Disappearances Still Carry Serious Risk
Even though the vast majority of missing youth cases end with the child located safely, child advocacy and law enforcement data indicate that roughly one in seven children reported as runaways is estimated to be a likely victim of child sex trafficking. That risk is part of why specialized advocacy groups treat runaway cases as high priority the longer they remain open.
Multi-agency efforts have shown results in New York before. A February operation in Westchester County involving more than 70 local, state, and federal agencies, coordinated with the National Child Protection Task Force, located 44 missing children and teens by re-examining cold youth runaway files, according to the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services.
Police also lean on digital tools when a case does not meet the threshold for an emergency alert. Apps like Citizen and NYPD's official social media channels are routinely used to broadcast clothing descriptions and photos to nearby residents, helping close the gap left by stricter AMBER Alert criteria.
How to Report Information
Anyone with information about the missing 12-year-old girl is urged to contact NYPD Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS, or the Spanish-language line at 1-888-57-PISTA. Tips can also be submitted by text message to 274637 (CRIMES) using the keyword TIP577, and all Crime Stoppers tips are kept strictly confidential.
