Brooklyn, NY – A 12-year-old girl from Brooklyn who had been missing for five days has been found safe and reunited with her family. Tori Perozo, known as Tori, had not returned home from school on April 9, prompting her sister and legal guardian, Eliana Perozo, to report her as missing.
Eliana was able to track Tori’s movements through an AirTag attached to her keys, which indicated that Tori had traveled to Manhattan instead of going home to Prospect Lefferts Gardens after school at The Baccalaureate School for Global Education.
The last time Eliana saw her sister was on the morning of her disappearance, as Tori left for school. They had a disagreement the night before, leading Eliana to believe that Tori had run away.
Eliana had taken Tori’s smartphone away after discovering she was in communication with an older boy and replaced it with a flip phone. However, Tori was not answering calls, and the AirTag showed her moving away from their home.
Eliana, along with a friend, traced the AirTag to an apartment complex in the Bronx, where a man claimed to have found it on the ground. However, there was no sign of Tori. Later, police informed Eliana that Tori had been seen on security footage in the East Village, boarding the N/R subway line at the NYU-8th St. stop around 5:45 a.m. on Thursday.
Despite the ordeal, Eliana expressed her hope that this incident would not define Tori’s life and emphasized her love and support for her sister.
Authorities are continuing to investigate the circumstances surrounding Tori’s disappearance but have not released any further information at this time.