Arlington Child Protective Services Investigates Girl Left Unattended On Trail

ARLINGTON, VA — An emergency alert went out late Saturday night about a young girl who was found unattended on a trail behind a Giant grocery store in Arlington.

At about 11:50 p.m. on Saturday, Arlington County Police were dispatched to the Lyon Village Shopping Center, near the intersection of Langston Boulevard and Spout Run Parkway, for a report of a child found walking on the Custis Trail behind the shopping center.

The Custis Trail is a popular bicycle and walking trail that connects the W&OD Trail in the Westover area to the Mount Vernon Trail in the Rosslyn area. But the trail is extremely poorly lit at night.

The Arlington County Police Department posted a photo of the young girl on Twitter just before midnight to assist in finding her parents.

"As a result of tips received to the Emergency Communications Center, the child’s parents were located and it was determined the child exited her residence and onto the nearby trail," police said in an incident report.

Just before 3 a.m. Sunday, Arlington police tweeted an update, saying that the girl's parents had been located.

According to police, Arlington Child Protective Services was notified of the unattended girl, and a joint investigation is being conducted with the police department.