A 10-year-old girl was reported missing from East Los Angeles, last seen near the intersection of Dennison Street and Ditman Avenue, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Nadege Miller is described as a Black girl standing 4 feet 10 inches tall and weighing 75 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a black-and-white shirt and blue jeans.
The disappearance was first reported by MyNewsLA.com, which noted the case has been classified as involving an at-risk child. Under Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department policy, any missing child under 12 automatically triggers a “Critical Child Missing” designation, which activates at-risk handling procedures and demands continuous search protocols. That classification stems from California Penal Code Section 14215, which sets urgent priority for cases involving young children.
Because Nadege is 10, deputies were required to act on the report the moment it came in. California Penal Code Section 14211 bars local agencies from imposing any waiting period before accepting a missing person report, meaning families cannot be told to wait 24 or 48 hours before deputies begin investigating, per Justia Law.
Search Centered in Unincorporated East Los Angeles
The stretch of Dennison Street and Ditman Avenue where Nadege was last seen sits in unincorporated East Los Angeles, an area patrolled directly by the East Los Angeles Sheriff's Station rather than a municipal police department. That station also covers nearby communities including Belvedere Gardens, City Terrace, Eastmont, and the City of Commerce, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
Missing person investigations across the county's contract cities and unincorporated areas are centrally overseen by the Homicide Bureau's Missing Persons Detail, based in Monterey Park, per a prior Hoodline report on LASD missing person protocols. That structure allows local station deputies to coordinate with centralized homicide detectives when cases require broader investigative resources.
Why No Ebony Alert or AMBER Alert Has Been Issued
Despite Nadege being a Black child, California's Ebony Alert system cannot be activated in her case. The alert, created under Senate Bill 673 in 2024 to raise awareness for missing Black youth and young women, applies exclusively to individuals between the ages of 12 and 25, according to the California Highway Patrol. At 10 years old, Nadege falls below that statutory age threshold.
For at-risk missing children who do not meet the strict abduction criteria required for an AMBER Alert, law enforcement agencies have another option: requesting an Endangered Missing Advisory from the California Highway Patrol's Emergency Notification and Tactical Alert Center. That center, known as ENTAC, operates 24 hours a day out of Sacramento to review and broadcast regional advisories under California Government Code Section 8594.11. It remains unclear whether the Sheriff's Department has requested such an advisory in Nadege's case, or whether the search is currently confined to local patrol deputies out of the East Los Angeles Station.
Public Tips Have Cracked Similar Cases Before
State data cited in a Hoodline report indicates that roughly one in six missing children is safely located after a member of the public recognizes the child's photograph from a broadcast bulletin and contacts authorities. That dynamic played out just weeks ago in the same patrol area: an Endangered Missing Advisory issued in July for an East LA 8-year-old was deactivated after deputies located the child and a suspect following the regional alert.
The scale of these cases across California is substantial. The state Department of Justice recorded more than 38,000 missing adult reports and tens of thousands of missing children reports in 2024, with Los Angeles County consistently among the highest-volume counties in the state. Nationally, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children assisted with 32,167 missing child cases in 2025 and resolved 90 percent of them, though the organization notes that runaway cases make up 92 percent of overall reports.
Anyone with information about Nadege Miller's whereabouts is urged to call the East Los Angeles Sheriff's Station at 323-264-4151. Tipsters who wish to remain anonymous can contact Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477 or submit information through lacrimestoppers.org.
