Missing East Orange teen ran away and lived in shelter before being found, officials say – NorthJersey.com

Jashyah Moore, a 14-year-old girl who had been missing for nearly a month until she was found safe in New York City, ran away and was evading being found while her community and multiple agencies searched for her across the North Jersey area, Essex County officials said.

A man, who officials described as a “good Samaritan,” eventually recognized Moore while she was living in a shelter in Brooklyn, acting Essex County Prosecutor Theodore Stephens said Friday morning.

But, Stephens said Moore had been staying at multiple locations while she was missing, in New Jersey and elsewhere.

“Obviously, this was an extremely resilient and resourceful young woman,” Stephens said of Moore’s ability to survive on her own for several weeks without any known source of money.

The man approached Moore, who had changed her appearance since leaving home weeks before, and asked if she was the missing girl, Stephens said, which Moore first denied before relenting and meeting with NYPD officers in Harlem..

The investigation into Moore’s reasons for leaving home continues.

Law enforcement will meet with Moore’s mother, Jaime, later Friday in an effort to ascertain why the girl may have left.

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Stephens could not confirm whether there was strife at home that could have motivated Moore to run but assured the community that would be a focus of their continued investigation.

Moore’s mother, Jaime, criticized law enforcement’s handling of her daughter’s case as a missing person and continually insisted Moore was taken and did not disappear on her own.

On Friday morning, Moore remained in the custody of the county prosecutor’s office and the New Jersey Department of Child Protection and Permanency.

East Orange Mayor Ted Green appealed to troubled youths in his city, urging them to come forward and seek help.

“If you need something or someone to cry out to for help, we are here for you,” he said.

Moore went missing at 10 a.m. on the morning of Oct. 15, when she went to Poppies Deli on Central Avenue in East Orange, near her home, to get some groceries. When she returned empty-handed, she told her mother that she had lost her payment card.

Jaime Moore told her daughter to retrace her steps, but she never returned.

Since then, East Orange police teamed with officers from Orange, Elizabeth, the Essex County sheriff’s and prosecutor’s offices and New Jersey State Police, as well as the FBI, which took an interest in the case since it received national coverage. 

Some in the community pleaded for the same widespread attention given to recently disappeared 22-year-old Gabby Petito, who was found dead of strangulation in September.