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6-year-old girl goes missing from Boys & Girls Club of Noblesville then is found safe

Stranger found her about 3/4 of a mile away
Posted at 11:08 PM, Feb 16, 2018
and last updated 2018-02-16 23:34:55-05

NOBLESVILLE, Ind. -- The Boys & Girls Club of Noblesville says it has enhanced its safety protocols after a 6-year-old girl went missing on Tuesday. 

"They failed my family by losing my daughter," said Temeka Chaney.

Chaney has been sending her five children to the Boys & Girls Club after school program in Noblesville for 10 years.

"You always hear about the stories but you never think it's going to be you," said Chaney.

Club staff said they couldn't find Chaney's 6-year-old daughter when she arrived to pick her up Tuesday night.

"My heart jumped out of my chest and jumped back in, and I just felt this tingling sensation like, oh my god, where is my daughter?" said Chaney.

Noblesville police say a woman saw the little girl walking down State Road 37 about three-quarters of a mile away from the Boys & Girls Club. The woman then brought the girl to a gas station and officers picked her up.

Chaney wanted to know how her daughter was able to leave the Club without an adult there to pick her up and how no one realized she was missing, so she confronted the staff.

"He said, 'Oh, I gave her her coat and she went out the door,'" said Chaney.

The girl's parents say they want the staff member fired.

"How does that make sense? For a child to have been missing out of the building and that person doesn't get terminated?" asked Michael Matthews, girl's stepfather.

The Boys & Girls Club board president told RTV6 in a statement:

"Following this incident, and after a thorough investigation of this serious matter, the Boys & Girls Club of Noblesville has enhanced our safety protocols and procedures involving the release of children from the Club facility. We sincerely regret this situation and are working diligently to ensure it does not happen again at this Club"

The family says they will not be bringing their children back and instead would like to thank the woman who saved their daughter's life.

"Whoever that lady was, we really wish she would reach out so we can find her and thank her," said Matthews.

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