Parents fury after police 'blunder' led to them losing the chance to locate their missing daughter, 12
Khloe Dunbar went missing on July 16 near Columbus, leaving her mother Megan Dunn terrified for her safety and desperately launching an effort to find her.
But in the week before Khloe was found safely, a bystander filmed a suspicious traffic stop in which police found the child but allowed her to stay with a group of adults.
Dunn said that discovering the cops had come face-to-face with her missing daughter but let her go left her 'disgusted.'
'I'm sick to my stomach,' she told 11Alive. 'I have video footage of these officers, and they let that little 12-year-old that was reported missing go. It's not OK. None of this is OK.'
Police admitted that not only did they allow Khloe to leave the traffic stop as a missing person, but they were not even aware she was in the footage until it was sent to them by the outlet.
'It wasn't until you sent us that cell phone video that we even knew about the traffic stop,' conceded Sgt. Joe Albert with Columbus police.
'We wish we had handled the traffic stop differently. We wish she had been returned to her parents.'
In bodycam footage of the traffic stop, police were seen pulling three people from a Chevy Malibu, sitting a male driver and two women by the side of the road.
They then asked Khloe her name and she gave a fake alias and claimed she was 15, but the cops instantly questioned this and she eventually gave her real name.
But they did not recognize the name despite a missing persons alert being issued days before, and allowed her to leave with one of the adult women after arresting the male driver.
Khloe was eventually found the next day thanks to the cell phone footage, which was circulated online after witness Daeja Rutland said she realized the girl was in the clip.
Rutland said she filmed the traffic stop after police pulled over two women and a man from a black SUV.
When she got home and went on social media, she said she saw a missing poster of Dunbar and her heart sank.
'I looked at that video one time and I knew it was her... I got on Facebook and the first thing I saw was that little girl's face. My heart stopped,' she said.
Dunn said her daughter's safe return was not satisfying given the way the police handled the case, saying that she wants an apology from officials
Dunn said she was infuriated by how close police were to her daughter, who she claimed had been 'close to a fentanyl overdose' at the time.
'(She was) this close to being trafficked,' she said. 'And the police had her, no regard for any of it. It's negligence.'
Khloe was eventually found the next day, six days after the initial missing person report was made.
But Dunn said her daughter's safe return was not satisfying given the way the police handled the case, saying that she wants an apology from officials.
'I want to hear, "We failed you and your family,"' Dunn said.
'There was only a 24-hour window before she was found again but that doesn't matter. What matters is that it happened.'
Columbus Police told 11Alive that they have launched an internal investigation into the incident.
It is unclear if any arrests were made after Khloe was found, and Daily Mail has contacted Columbus Police for more information.
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