Alison Chao missing Monterey Park, California teen found safe amid custody battle dispute mother and father and mental health concerns. Teen found outside TV station in Glendale. Girl’s parents id as Jeffery and Anne Chao, who are separated.
A California girl who disappeared after setting off from her Monterey Park family home to her aunt’s home by bicycle only to never make it has reportedly been found safe a week later after a passerby recognized her and called authorities.
Alison Jillian Chao, 15, was walking in Glendale on Tuesday, a week after going missing when someone in a car recognized her and called the police. Additional details are scarce, but KABC reported that she was outside their offices when someone recognized her as a missing teen posted on fliers and from reports.
Chao vanished on June 16, after she left her father’s home on her bike, Tuesday afternoon. at 5.30pm. She was en route to her aunt’s San Gabriel home, some four miles away.
Press conference
The trip should have taken 20 minutes but Alison’s aunt called her father around 8 p.m. to let him know she never arrived.
Chao was last seen wearing a purple T-shirt, black shorts, dark shoes and carrying a black backpack according to Real Bell surveillance video.
The circumstances surrounding Chao’s disappearance are unclear at this time, but her father during a Tuesday afternoon press through family lawyer, Jose Romero, said that no foul play or kidnapping was suspected, NBC4 reported.
‘We’ve been really worried about where she’s been,’ the father said. ‘We really appreciate what everyone’s done and helped out with.’
Custody and parenting issues amid parent separation
No details as to where the teen actually ended up and why she had failed to reach out to family were provided.
Alison Chao is currently held at the Monterey Park Police Department.
‘She’s a very intelligent person and she’s a godly person with a really good heart,’ her father said.
According to the family law attorney for the father, Hannah Bui, Alison’s mother has sole legal custody of her for mental health.
Anne Chao was granted physical custody on a temporary basis as of last week, according to Bui.
