Nashville girl, 12, missing for two weeks

03.28.05

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By Ahmar Mustikhan
Diversity Institute Fellow

Police asked the public Thursday to help them find a 12-year-old runaway girl who left home in North Nashville two weeks ago.

Police said Maurica Latrena Thompson had run away three times since Nov. 30. But the longest she was away from home was overnight.

Youth services detectives were combing the neighborhood where Maurica lived, police said.

"We quite frankly are concerned," police spokesman Don Aaron said, adding that foul play was not suspected.

Maurica, a sixth-grader at Cameron Middle School, left her home March 3 to visit a boyfriend on Laurinda Drive.

A friend told officers that she saw Maurica on Lutie Street on March 7. The friend reported that Maurica told her she was staying with a boyfriend, police said.

Asked whether an "Amber Alert" was issued, a police spokesman said it did not meet that criteria. Usually an Amber Alert is issued in situations in which a child is known or thought to have been abducted by a non-family member.

Maurica's mother took out a runaway petition from the juvenile court March 6, three days after the girl's disappearance, police said.

The missing girl is 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighs 120 pounds.

Metro Nashville Police Department said anyone having any tip about Maurica should call 862-7417 or 862-8600.

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