Two teenage girls who walked away from a Toledo foster home nearly four weeks ago have been found safe inside a Cleveland apartment, where investigators also recovered a handgun and drug paraphernalia alongside the pair. The girls, ages 15 and 17, had been missing since being reported to the Toledo Police Department on July 10, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.
The recovery closed out a search that stretched roughly 115 miles across Ohio, from Toledo to a residence in the 1200 block of West 25th Street in Cleveland. As reported by Cleveland 19 News, Toledo police and the U.S. Marshals SPEAR Unit worked together to track the girls down, and the pair were found with two adult men inside the apartment. The operation ultimately drew a wide coalition of agencies, including the Toledo Police Department, the Northeast Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force, the FBI, and the HUD Office of Inspector General, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.
Handgun and Drugs Found Alongside the Teens
Officers executing the search at the apartment recovered a handgun and drug paraphernalia inside the residence alongside the missing girls, the U.S. Marshals Service reported. One of the two men found with the teens, 42-year-old Carlos Bruton, was arrested at the scene. Per the same account, Bruton had an open case for interference with custody and another open case for unlawful sexual contact with a minor, and he was out on bond in Cuyahoga County at the time of his arrest.
A second man, 30 years old, was also detained at the apartment. Police are still investigating possible charges against him, and no formal charges against him had been announced as of the initial report.
Marshal Points to Ongoing Danger for Missing Kids
U.S. Marshal Pete Elliott said missing children are vulnerable to adults wishing to do them harm, and added that the U.S. Marshals will continue work across Ohio and the country to ensure children's safety. Elliott created the SPEAR Unit — Specialized Personnel for Enforcement, Apprehension, and Recovery — in early 2026 to target missing children cases, sex offenders, and cold cases across Northern Ohio, according to the U.S. Marshals Service. Appointed in 2003, Elliott is the longest-serving U.S. Marshal in Ohio history, and he previously established Northern Ohio's Missing Child Unit in 2020 and the Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force in 2003.
This is not the SPEAR Unit's only recent success in Greater Cleveland. In July, the unit recovered three missing child siblings in East Cleveland who had walked away from a Cuyahoga County youth facility four months earlier, a case Hoodline covered in a raid on a mom's hideout. That operation led to the arrest of the children's mother on custody interference charges.
Foster Youth Face Elevated Runaway Risk Statewide
The Toledo case fits into a broader pattern documented by Ohio's child welfare data. The 2025 Ohio Missing Children Clearinghouse Report, released by the Ohio Attorney General, found that 15,367 children were reported missing statewide last year, with 97.8 percent — 15,024 children — safely recovered by year's end. Runaway cases made up nearly half of those reports, with 7,656 documented across the state, according to the Ohio Attorney General's office.
Youth in foster care carry a heightened statistical risk of running from placements. Research from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services shows foster youth are more than twice as likely to run away from placements as children living with biological families, with state guidance citing placement friction, trauma, and romantic relationships as key drivers. Open questions remain in this case, including exactly how the two Toledo girls traveled to Cleveland and whether federal weapons charges will follow the seizure of the handgun and drugs found at the apartment.
