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Police said it wasn’t unusual for 18-year-old Annice Leininger to go for a morning walk around her Montclair neighborhood.
But on Tuesday, the teen with Down syndrome didn’t come home.
At 10:30 a.m. Prince William County police launched a massive search, calling in 75 officers, along with canine search teams and a Fairfax County police helicopter.
As the day wore on with no signs of the girl, the search took on more urgency. Leininger had vanished without leaving any clues.
Officers checked the homes of friends and relatives, they scoured the shores of Lake Montclair and handed out fliers bearing her picture at businesses around Dumfries, Dale City and Woodbridge.
Leininger, who suffers medical problems and mental disabilities, has a friend who lives near Godwin Elementary School in Dale City. Officers checked the house earlier in the day, but got no response.
Then “diligent officers decided to check again” about 4:15 p.m. and found Leininger safe and sound, Prince William police 1st Sgt. Kim Chinn said.
To help in the search, the organization “A Child is Missing” was notified and generated an automated message to listed phone numbers in the area Tuesday morning.
The nonprofit group based in Florida teams with law enforcement agencies around the country to help find missing and endangered children. The group’s phone system can place 1,000 calls in 60 seconds.
Calls from the group prompted dozens of leads from Montclair residents, police said.
The search for Leininger ended happily, but stirred reminders of the Lexie Glover case earlier this year.
In January, two days after her mother reported her missing, the 13-year-old physically and mentally challenged girl was found dead in a freezing creek near the McCoart Administration Building.
In that case, too, police put massive resources into searching for girl. Her adoptive mother, Alfreedia Gregg-Glover, admitted six days later that Lexie had suffered a medical emergency and she dumped her unconscious in the creek.
In July, Gregg-Glover pleaded guilty to murder, child abuse and filing a false police report. She faces 51 years in prison when she is sentenced Oct. 2.
Staff reporter Uriah A. Kiser can be reached at 703-878-8065. Communities editor Kari Pugh can be reached at 703-878-8056.
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