UTICA, N.Y. (WFXV/WUTR) – On Monday July 20,13-year-old Curnelius Patterson was reported missing and returned home four days later. But on Sunday a post appeared on Facebook, claiming the boy was a possible child sex trafficking victim, a claim that wasn’t even brought up during the initial search, according to Utica Police captain Michael Curley.
“In that missing person’s report, there was no indication the child was in immediate danger,” he said. “Certainly not being sex trafficked, certainly not anything out of the extraordinary nature that some of the social media posts made it to be.”
The information was posted by missing child alert which has thousand followers on Facebook.
Curley says the groups have no local affiliation and may be exaggerating simple mishaps with cases.
“A lot of those cases are the child is just hanging out wit friends, he said.” Just doesn’t want to go home, just really some non nefarious reasons.”
Eyewitness news reached out to missing child alert but received no response. Curley says incidents like this, emphasize why it’s important for the public to get their information from trusted sources to protect investigations and the families of missing kids.
“It’s really incumbent upon us to put out the truth and make sure people understand that what these posts can do, “And how much of a viral nature they can go with some kind of information that shouldn’t be out there.”
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