A 16-year-old girl who vanished from the Dancing Bay Lane area of Wesley Chapel late last month has been found safe, according to the Pasco Sheriff's Office. Dakota Rubel had been missing for about a week after she was last seen around 10 p.m. on Tuesday.
The sheriff's office confirmed the resolution in a Thursday update to its original missing-runaway alert, writing simply, “Update: Rubel was found and is safe,” according to Pasco Sheriff. The agency had first gone public with the search on July 30, posting Rubel's description and asking for tips on her whereabouts, before updating the announcement Thursday to confirm she had been located, per the Facebook post that first circulated her case details, which included her case number, 26026876, along with identifying marks such as a tattoo on her lower left arm and an abdominal scar.
Rubel was described in the alert as a girl with brown hair, blue eyes, standing 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighing around 190 pounds. Investigators did not have information on what she was wearing when she disappeared. The sheriff's office had asked anyone with information to call 911 in an emergency, use the agency's non-emergency line at 727-847-8102, or submit a tip online at pascosheriff.com/tips, while noting its social media account is not monitored around the clock.
Update: Rubel was found and is safe. https://t.co/Zi6qk2Iw3u
— Pasco Sheriff (@PascoSheriff) August 6, 2026
How Pasco Deputies Handle Runaway Cases
The case followed a pattern familiar to Pasco County: a teenager reported missing, a rapid social media push for tips, and a resolution within days. When searching for missing juveniles, the sheriff's office can deploy its federally certified Missing and Abducted Child Team, aerial drone and helicopter crews, and K-9 tracking teams, according to the agency's missing-persons recovery page. For rougher stretches of Pasco's rural and off-road terrain, the department also relies on a volunteer Jeep Unit outfitted with all-terrain vehicles, per Pasco Sheriff Charities.
Under operational guidelines the agency updated in 2022, deputies routinely post runaway juveniles and missing individuals to official social media accounts and the department's news website specifically to generate public tips quickly, the same recovery-efforts page notes. That strategy has played out repeatedly across Pasco County in recent months, from a missing Port Richey woman found safe earlier this month to searches for missing teenagers in Holiday and New Port Richey.
What Florida Law Requires — and Forbids
Florida law leaves little room for delay in cases like Rubel's. Florida Statute 937.021 requires every law enforcement agency in the state to have written procedures for investigating missing children and adults immediately, without any waiting period, and assigns primary jurisdiction to the agency covering the area where the person was last seen, according to Online Sunshine, the Florida Legislature's official statutes site.
The law also targets anyone who might shelter a runaway minor without notifying parents or authorities. Under Florida Statute 984.085, it is a first-degree misdemeanor for an unauthorized adult to knowingly shelter an unmarried minor for more than 24 hours or provide aid, including hotel accommodations, without parental consent or law enforcement notification, per FindLaw.
A Common but Risky Pattern Nationally
Rubel's case fits a broader national pattern. Runaway cases accounted for more than 90% of the over 32,000 missing children cases the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children supported in 2025, according to the organization's impact data. Research compiled by the same organization shows that 74% of reported endangered runaways are between 15 and 17 years old, and an estimated 1 in 7 are likely to become victims of child sex trafficking, according to The Missing Child Project.
Those risks are part of why Pasco deputies treat runaway reports with the same urgency as abduction cases, deploying specialized teams and public alerts even when a disappearance is initially believed to be voluntary. Rubel's case adds to a string of similar outcomes in the county this year, following a Port Richey search that ended safely earlier this month and several other teen searches across Pasco County in recent months.
