Missing Essex Teen Found At New Jersey Train Station

NEWARK, NJ — A New Jersey Transit Police officer is being credited with reuniting a Maryland teen who had been missing for more than a month with her family. Brooklynn Hays, 16, of Essex, had disappeared in September. She was located this week in New Jersey, police said.

The officer saw Hays on a missing persons bulletin and recognized her as someone she had seen recently at Newark Penn Station in New Jersey.

Shortly before midnight on Tuesday, Nov. 6, New Jersey Transit Police Officer Colleen Hilton saw the teen again in the station and spoke with her, officials reported.

Hays had left home after an argument on Sept. 30, according to New Jersey Transit officials. Police had previously said that she was last seen on Thursday, Oct. 4, in Queens, New York.

Back in Maryland, people distributed flyers, held a prayer service and started a Facebook group to help spread the word about her disappearance.

Community members gathered for a vigil at Hope Lutheran Church on Friday, Oct. 12, where WJZ reported they put illuminated paper bags outside, "lighting a path for her to come home."

After the teen's family said she may have been spotted in Nassau County, New York, the NYPD Missing Persons Squad also issued a lookout for her there.

Once Officer Hilton put two and two together, the girl's mother traveled to Newark Penn Station from Maryland, and she was reunited with her daughter during the early hours on Wednesday, Nov. 7, according to a statement from the New Jersey Transit Police.

"The NJ Transit police work hand-in-hand with all of our partners on a variety of cases," New Jersey Transit Police Department Chief Christopher Trucillo said. "I'm very proud that one of my officers was able to use the training and skills she was taught and help solve this missing persons case."

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Photo courtesy of the Baltimore County Police Department.