UPDATE: Missing NJ Girl Found; Mom Charged With Endangerment – Patch

This article was updated at 3:40 p.m. on Nov. 12

EAST ORANGE, NJ — A missing New Jersey girl has been found after last being seen in East Orange nearly a month ago, and her mother has been charged with child endangerment, authorities announced Friday.

The disappearance of Jashyah Moore, 14, of East Orange, set off a massive search from local, state and federal authorities, as well as a fevered community effort to find her. She was last seen on Oct. 14 at a local deli, police said.

East Orange police, the FBI and the NJ State Police worked in collaboration to help find the missing teen, with the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office later spearheading the investigation.

The search has paid off, prosecutors said; Moore has been safely located in New York City.

“Jashyah is currently safe and is being provided all appropriate services,” Acting Essex County Prosecutor Theodore Stephens said. “She will be returned to New Jersey shortly.”

Authorities released more details about the case at a Friday news conference (watch the video below).

“The young lady appears to have run away,” Acting Essex County Prosecutor Theodore Stephens said, adding that she apparently “did not want to make herself known.”

The teen’s mother, Jamie A. Moore, 39, has been charged with two counts of second degree endangering the welfare of a child. The endangering charges include allegations of physical abuse and neglect, Stephens and East Orange Police Chief Phyllis Bindi said in a joint statement.

Moore was arrested Friday, authorities said. She is being held at the Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark pending a court appearance.

Moore’s 14-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son have been removed from her custody by the New Jersey Division of Child Protection and Permanency (DCCP), authorities said.

In a GoFundMe campaign released earlier this week to raise money for the search, the elder Moore described the situation as “every parent’s nightmare.”

“As a mother, there are no words that can describe what my family and I are going through,” Moore wrote. “It’s hard to eat, sleep or even function with every day that passes. I just want my baby back home with her loving family laughing playing her PS4 with her little brother.”

Stephens added that as far as authorities know, the DCCP did not have an open case involving the teen at the time of her disappearance.

Stephens said it also doesn’t appear that Moore was registered in a school at the time she left home.

Moore was staying at a shelter in Brooklyn and came alone to police, he said. She is currently with law enforcement authorities.

Stephens added that it’s “almost impossible” to believe that Moore wouldn’t have known about the massive search, and it appears to be that “she was more comfortable where she was.”

The prosecutor said that an Amber Alert was never issued because authorities need to believe that someone has been abducted, and investigators “never saw anything that really led us to that conclusion.”

According to Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura, the reward money offered for Moore’s safe return – which increased to $20,000 after multiple local businesses offered contributions – hasn’t been claimed as of Friday.