After a month-long search, 14-year-old Jashyah Moore was found safe in New York. Moore’s mother has been arrested and faces multiple child endangerment charges.
Moore, who went missing on Oct. 14, was located by a good samaritan on Nov. 11 in Harlem. When authorities approached Moore to confirm her identity, she initially denied who she was, but after further questioning, she established her identity with the NYPD, according to CBS 2 New York.
According to reports, the 14-year-old traveled to New York and reportedly stayed in multiple places before settling in a homeless shelter in Brooklyn.
“Obviously, this was an extremely resilient and resourceful young lady, and she decided she wanted to be someplace other than where she had been, and she made it happen,” said Acting Essex County Prosecutor Theodore Stephens.
“Where she was, she seemed to be more so at ease than where she was,” Stephens said.
According to a report from ABC 7, the teen’s mother, 39-year-old Jamie Moore, was not reunited with her daughter and was arrested Friday afternoon for child endangerment and neglect.
Moore’s daughter and 3-year-old son have been removed from her custody by the New Jersey Division of Child Protection and Permanency.
Moore has been charged with two counts of second-degree child endangerment.
The mother of Jashyah Moore, the 14-year-old New Jersey girl who went missing nearly a month ago, was charged with endangering the welfare of a child. https://t.co/lOJkPyvweh pic.twitter.com/h7ufci1VzB
— ABC7 News (@abc7newsbayarea) November 13, 2021
Earlier Friday, East Orange Mayor Ted Green made a statement highlighting the importance of young people finding someone they can turn to if they’re in trouble.
“To our young people that at any time we can be of some help and you need to cry out to someone, we are here for you,” Mayor Ted Green said.
Officials also weighed in the positive community effort it took to bring the 14-ear-old home safely.
“This is a perfect example for the potential to have positive outcomes when we come together and work as a whole community,” said Chief Phyllis Bindi of the East Orange Police Department.
Members of the community have questioned Moore’s parenting skills after the teen revealed there had been trouble in the household.
“She needs to be in jail if she was beating on that girl,” East Orange resident Corey Alston told CBS2’s, Jessica Layton.
“I’m glad that we found her as a community,” one man said, adding, “She wasn’t good at home, and she was looking for refuge from other places.”
According to a PIX 11 report, Moore has an ongoing domestic violence case with her estranged husband, the 14-year-old’s stepfather and has allegedly abused her in the past.
Community activist Donna Jackson said she wasn’t surprised when allegations of physical abuse and neglect had surfaced.
“I’m here today to make sure she is not returned to that home. Somebody has got to speak for this baby,” she said. “This baby was out there panhandling every day while she lived in East Orange. How does panhandling, not going to school, what does that say?” said Jackson in a statement with CBS New York.
The 14-year-old had previously been enrolled in the Irvington school district, but her mother told them she would transfer to East Orange in September. School officials say Moore was never registered, CBS New York noted.
Sis2Sis previously reported that the 14-year-old was last seen at a deli in East Orange, New Jersey, when her mother reported her missing on Oct.14. Moore, who was sent to the store to get a few items for her family, had made it home safely but backtracked after realizing she had misplaced her mother’s EBT card.
The family organized a search for the teen after she did not return home that night. Her mother, along with members of her family, created flyers, a GoFundMe page and the FBI and police had joined the search to locate Moore.
At the time of her disappearance, the teen’s mother made it clear her daughter was not a runaway.
“My daughter did not run away, an Amber Alert, right away, they should have put it in, but because it didn’t fit the criteria — what the h*ll is the criteria?” Moore said. “For us to never see her again?”
A $20,000 reward had been offered by Essex County Crime Stoppers program. The reward has not been claimed at this time.
