Land O' Lakes Teen Jaeda Benitez-Laboy Found Safe After Seven-Week Search

A 15-year-old girl who vanished from a busy Land O' Lakes intersection nearly seven weeks ago has been found safe, according to the Pasco Sheriff's Office. Jaeda Benitez-Laboy was last seen on July 3 near the intersection of Collier Parkway and Bell Lake Drive, and her disappearance had prompted repeated public appeals from investigators throughout the summer.

Deputies confirmed the update in a brief post on X, writing that “Benitez-Laboy was found and is safe,” according to the Pasco Sheriff. The account that shared the news, run under the handle pascosheriff, is not monitored around the clock, so anyone with an emergency was directed to call 911 rather than wait for a response there.

Benitez-Laboy had been missing since being last seen wearing a black long-sleeve shirt, pink shorts, and black shoes, with brown hair featuring blonde highlights, brown eyes, and a build described as 5 feet 5 inches tall and around 215 pounds. Pasco Sheriff's deputies had been searching for her since the July disappearance, which the agency classified as missing and endangered.

Update: Benitez-Laboy was found and is safe. https://t.co/eu0FO1OHTn

— Pasco Sheriff (@PascoSheriff) August 21, 2026

A Search That Began With Two Missing Teens

When Benitez-Laboy first disappeared on July 3, Pasco Sheriff's deputies were initially searching for her alongside 16-year-old Ceriah Stanley, who vanished from the same Land O' Lakes location. Stanley was found safe within days, according to the Pasco Sheriff's Office, while Benitez-Laboy remained missing for nearly seven weeks. Hoodline previously reported on the search for Stanley, whose case unfolded in parallel with Benitez-Laboy's before it was resolved.

The intersection where Benitez-Laboy was last seen sits in a high-density suburban corridor anchored by local schools, public parks, and retail centers in central Pasco County, the sheriff's office notes. That geography meant the search stretched across a well-trafficked stretch of the county even as leads on her whereabouts remained scarce for weeks.

A Recurring Pattern of Vanishings

This was not the first time Benitez-Laboy had been reported missing this summer. She had previously been reported missing as a runaway by Pasco Sheriff's deputies on June 10, after vanishing on June 9 from Bluff Meadow Court in Wesley Chapel, according to the sheriff's office's own case records. That earlier episode meant this was the teenager's second reported missing instance in Pasco County within a two-month span.

Under Florida Statute § 937.0201, any missing person younger than 18 is classified in state law as a missing child and a missing endangered person, which guarantees comprehensive search protocols regardless of whether a youth is believed to have run away voluntarily. Separately, Florida Statute § 937.021 bars law enforcement agencies from imposing any waiting period before accepting a missing person report and requires case details to be entered into state and national databases within two hours of receipt.

Statewide Resources Behind the Search

Pasco County is home to Florida's F1RST public safety campus in Land O' Lakes, which includes the Helen A. Rich K9 Campus and the Center for Recovery of Endangered or Missing Persons, giving local investigators specialized infrastructure for exactly this kind of case. The state also relies on the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Missing Endangered Persons Information Clearinghouse, created in 1983 as the nation's first state-level clearinghouse, which coordinates analytical research, DNA resources, and multi-agency alerts between local sheriff's offices and national databases.

Cases like Benitez-Laboy's are not isolated. National Center for Missing & Exploited Children data indicates Florida consistently ranks among the top states nationwide for missing youth reports, generating more than 2,600 missing children cases annually. The Pasco Sheriff's Office disabled comments on its social media alerts back in 2022 to keep actionable leads from getting buried, a policy the agency says ensures time-sensitive tips are directed instead through its monitored channels.

Anyone with information related to missing persons cases in the area is encouraged to call the Pasco Sheriff's Office tip line at 727-847-8102, option 7, or submit a tip online at pascosheriff.com/tips, though the agency notes that non-emergency online submissions can take up to 72 hours for administrative review.