The Missing: Girl, 12, found safe in Las Vegas

For four days police have been searching for missing 12-year-old Pricilla Ristick, and on Thursday they found her in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Pricilla told police she took a bus to Las Vegas and had been there one to two days.

Pricilla began calling her uncle, Mr. Joey Thompson, on his cell phone from a blocked number, Gwinnett County Police Cpl. Edwin Ritter said. Pricilla told her uncle she was in a building with many people and they didn’t want her to leave, Cpl. Ritter said.

Investigators got the incoming telephone numbers to Mr. Thompson’s phone and with his permission held on to the phone and waited for Pricilla to call. She called at 5:30 p.m. and when investigators answered, she told them she was at a Kroger in Atlanta.

“She never indicated that she was in any sort of fear or danger and claimed she was fine,” Cpl. Ritter said. "As the investigators spoke with Pricilla on the phone they were able to get the number she was calling from.”

 They traced the call to an intersection in Las Vegas and as the investigators continued to speak with her on the phone, they contacted the Las Vegas Police Department.

Officers responded to the location and took the girl into custody, Cpl. Ritter said. She told the officers she caught a bus to Las Vegas and had been there for one or two days.

Pricilla and her mom, who are from Las Vegas, had only been in Georgia for two weeks when the 12-year-old disappeared on Sunday.

Police treated the girl’s disappearance as abduction. But from the beginning they said it was a strange case.

Pricilla and the uncle she came to visit were selling flowers about 5:30 p.m. Sunday in a strip mall at 895 Indian Trail Road.

Shortly after her uncle stepped into a nearby business to use the restroom, witnesses saw the girl approaching a white van. A moment later, she was gone. But no one saw the girl get into the van, spokesman Cpl. Jake Smith said

Later, the girl called her mom to say she was with someone named Nancy. She told her mom Nancy was not going to let her go. But the girl also said, she did not want to leave Nancy, Cpl. Smith said.

Family members have heard Nancy’s name before, but have never met the woman. The 12-year-old met the woman while selling flowers.

“This whole thing is very odd,” Cpl. Smith said. “It’s not your usual abduction.”

Investigators have said it’s possible the girl’s abductor enticed her.

The girl’s mom told reporters her daughter said the woman has bought her clothes and other items.

Now police are trying to determine if anyone helped Pricilla get to Las Vegas, and whether any criminal activity occurred

The 12-year-old is now in the custody of child care services, Cpl. Ritter said.

To see previous story, go to: http://www.examiner.com/crime-in-atlanta/missing-12-year-old-girl-tells-mom-she-doesn-t-want-to-leave-her-abductor

Each week, Atlanta Crime Examiner runs a feature on a missing person from in and around Metro Atlanta. To see the previous story, go to: http://www.examiner.com/crime-in-atlanta/the-missing-man-with-troubled-past-decides-to-get-help-when-he-disappears