The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office is still searching for a missing girl they believe ran away more than a week ago from her grandpa’s house east of Greenwood, and they still need your help to find her.
Valentina LaCava, 13, of Indianapolis, was reported missing about 1 a.m. June 21 from the 5500 block of Watson Road, Greenwood. She was last seen getting into a car at a nearby intersection, and has not been seen or heard from since.
Investigators have exhausted all leads, chief of investigations Damian Katt said Monday morning.
Since she was reported missing, the sheriff’s office has spent more than 100 hours looking for LaCava in Johnson and Marion counties, Katt said. Five detectives followed the latest lead for more than eight hours on Friday in Indianapolis.
This is a tricky case, Katt said.
They do not believe the teen was abducted or that there was any foul play involved, but they do believe she is in danger due to her age.
“If it were my 13-year-old daughter, I would think she was in danger,” Katt said. “This is a 13-year-old girl running around in a big city unsupervised.”
They have not issued an Amber Alert and doubt they will due to LaCava’s history of running away, he said. She has gotten smarter, and detectives suspect she just does not want to be found.
Indiana State Police reached out to the sheriff’s office last week to offer to help with the case, Katt said.
LaCava is a slender, white female. She is 5-feet 1-inch tall, and weighs about 110 pounds. She has black hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing dark jeans and a zip-up sweatshirt, possibly a hoodie, and black sneakers, according to a missing persons bulletin.
About 9:30 p.m. June 20, a Greenwood man reported seeing a young girl matching this description get into an old, dirty, two-door Honda Civic with damage to its front bumper at the intersection of Watson Road and Possum Hollow Road, the same neighborhood the girl was reported missing from, a news release from the sheriff’s office said.
Detectives tracked down a car fitting that description following a separate incident in Indianapolis, but the witness said it was not the car he saw her get into. He has since changed his story, and now says it was not a Honda, but an entirely different car, Katt said.
Detectives initially believed an arrangement was made for LaCava to be picked up. They are not sure who the driver of the car is or whether she knew the person.
Phone records provided no new information, detective Joe Schmidt said.
LaCava has connections to Whiteland and Indianapolis. Anyone with information is encouraged to call the Johnson County Dispatch Center at 317-346-6336.
