Wyn Delano
WMAL.com

Frederick, MD — (WMAL) On Tuesday morning, just before 7AM, a resident alerted Frederick City Police to a two-year-old girl wandering in the street alone near a playground on Osprey Way. Officers arrived on the scene and identified the girl as Shyann [sic], based on what the girl was saying to police. In a happy ending, Shyann was reunited with a family member around two and a half hours later.

Police say, however, that cases like these are more common than you’d think.

“A lot of time its just from doors that have been left unlocked and that don’t have extra locks on them where children cannot reach,” says Lt. John Holler – Commander of the Patrol Division for Frederick City Police. “We’ve actually dealt with this several times this summer,” he adds. “This is probably the most lengthy as far as how long a child has been missing that the parents haven’t been aware.

Police made a large scale effort to canvass the area near Osprey Way quickly and alerted residents using an “all hands on deck” approach in the early hours of the morning. Detectives and an outreach team went out “knocking on doors, contacting citizens, [and] showing pictures,” according to Lt. Holler. Frederick City Police also put out a tweet asking for the public’s help in finding the missing family member.

After detectives tracked down the family member they did their due diligence on potential neglect: “It doesn’t look like any ill intent – there was no purpose behind the child being left,” Holler said. “I know that was a concern, but everything looks okay. Our detectives are still investigating, just to make sure everything’s okay and to set up a plan to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Young children wandering out of the house is an issue that police have dealt with frequently this summer, according to Holler. “As kids get older – especially around two – they have the ability to start turning the locks if they’re the doorknob locks and opening doors as well,” Holler says. He cautions that parents often don’t recognize what their toddler is capable of: “You feel like their not to that point until they are,” Holler warns, “and sometimes it’s too late to realize it.

So far, all of the young children who have walked out of their house in Frederick have been swiftly returned to their parents. Holler, however, still is working on additional safety plans to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“We’ve been lucky,” he says.

Copyright 2018 WMAL and WMAL.com All Rights Reserved. (Photo: Frederick City Police)