The runaway 12-year-old girl who hitched a ride from upstate to New York City was found safe on Staten Island Friday afternoon, according to a law enforcement source.
Malaya Johnson turned up at a home on Holiday Way in Graniteville, Staten Island, the source said.
“My baby is ok,” Johnson’s father, Jay Johnson, posted to Facebook. “I never been more thankful in my life.
“Malaya we love u can’t wait to see u baby girl,” her aunt, Stephanie Johnson, wrote. “Thank u lord.”
Malaya contacted her worried family on Thursday — shortly after George Torres, 19, drove her to Staten Island, NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea said at a press conference.
“Around that time is where there was contact with her…with her family, where she reached out to tell them she had no intention of coming home, but she is fine,” Shea said Friday morning.
“Everything I have seen, there is no explicit, at this point, danger, but of course we’d like to get her safely home as quickly as possible,” he added.
The news comes after Torres, of Staten Island, was arrested late Thursday and charged with endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor, in connection to Malaya’s disappearance, the Washington County Sheriff’s said. A kidnapping charge was added later Friday, The Post-Star of Glens Falls, NY reported.
Torres gave Malaya a ride to the Big Apple at her request, dropping her off at the Staten Island Ferry terminal around 11 a.m. Thursday, authorities told the paper.
“Essentially this is an individual that met up with her online,” Shea said. “The information I have is he believed it was an 18-year-old girl, and some point after physically meeting with her, he learned that was not the truth.”
He picked Malaya up after school in Hudson Falls on Wednesday, Hudson Falls Police Chief Scott Gillis told the paper.
Torres drove a newer-model red Ford Mustang, registered to his father in Pennsylvania, that was found on Staten Island late Thursday, officials said.
He was wheeled into Washington County Court in a wheelchair for his Friday arraignment, speaking only to acknowledge his name, address and that he understood his rights, the paper reported.
Washington County First Assistant DA Christian Morris told the court that the case is considered a kidnapping because of Malaya’s age — even though she consented to leave with him.
But Torres’ lawyer, Washington County public defender Michael Mercure, told the paper that “at this state, the kidnapping charge is not a strong charge.” He said his client is a college graduate who works for the state in New York City and has no criminal record.
Torres was taken to the Washington County Jail early Friday for lack of bail, according to the report.
An Amber Alert was issued for Malaya on Thursday. She was last spotted around noon that day, near the ferry terminal on the Staten Island side, according to the NYPD.
Torres and another man — who was not charged — were questioned Thursday night, but neither could not provide any information on where Malaya was headed, the Post-Star reported.