Sheneka Cole -- Found Alive 4/6/10

6-year-old girl missing on South Side

April 7, 2010 8:13 AM



Police are searching for a 6-year-old girl last seen playing in a park on the South Side.

Sheneka Cole was reported missing shortly after 8 p.m. Tuesday after she had gone out to play in a park at 518 E. 60th St. in the Washington Park neighborhood, police said.

She is 4 feet tall and weighs 97 pounds with brown eyes and black hair.

She was wearing a lime green Rocawear shirt and pink jeans.

Anyone seeing her or with information on her whereabouts is asked to call the Area 2 Detective Division Special Victim Unit at 312-747-8274.

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/04/6-year-old-girl-missing-on-south-side.html

Sheneka was last seen wearing a lime green Rocawear shirt and pink jeans.

Sheneka is 4-feet tall and weighs 97 pounds.

Police urge anyone having information to call detectives at (312) 747-8274.

http://www.wgntv.com/wgntv-missing-girl-alert-chicago-apr7,0,472780.story

Ah, she looks like a sweetheart. I wonder how long she had been in the park and who was supposed to be watching her? I hope she is found safe....

6-year-old girl found safe after massive manhunt

April 7, 2010
BY MARK J. KONKOL Staff Reporter

While family feared the worst, six year-old Sheneka Cole — reported missing Tuesday night — was found safely sleeping at a friend’s house just a block away from her home early this afternoon.

Before she was found, police searched Washington Park, checked the lagoons and ordered up a bloodhound to follow the girl’s scent. Dozens of volunteers passed out fliers, scoured alleyways, Dumpsters and vacant buildings looking for Sheneka in the pouring rain.

The massive manhunt ended at about 1 p.m. when four Cole family friends going door-to-door found Sheneka sleeping at a friend’s house in the 6000 block of Eberhart — just around the corner from the playground where she was last seen at about 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Lee Key, a close family friend, said two girls pointed him to an apartment building where they found Sheneka sleeping face down on a love seat in an apartment that looked vacant with a kicked in front door.

When Key spotted Sheneka he grabbed her and hugged her. When Nicole Cole — Sheneka’s biological aunt, who is also her adoptive mother — got the good news, she ran to get the girl.

“God is good,” Key said. “I’m just ecstatic. It’s such a blessing to have found her.”

After a tearful reunion with family on their front porch, Sheneka appeared to be in good condition, but was “very shaken up,” family members said. A short time later, Sheneka was seen being removed from the house on a stretcher and taken away in an ambulance. A fire department spokesman later said she was headed for a quick medical check-up.

At about 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sheneka and her friend were at the playground across the street from her house in the 500 block of 60th Street when gunshots rang out nearby. The girls were scared. Sheneka fled to her friend’s house on Eberhart. Sheneka told family members she spent the night there because she was afraid to go outside after the shooting, which injured two girls near 61st and King Drive.

There wasn’t a radio, television or computer in the apartment where Sheneka was found and the adult woman who lived there did not know about the search for the girl, Key said.

Once Sheneka was reunited with her family, the woman who lived in the building where the girl was found was interviewed by police. No one has been charged with wrongdoing in the incident as of this evening.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/2145491,girl-missing-park-sheneka-cole-040710.article

Thank goodness! Another one found safe and sound...

OMG, 6 year olds allowed to play in a park where they hear gunshots ring out!!!! What kind of parent would allow a child out of the house in a neighborhood like this?

Unfortunately, in some neighborhoods, this is the norm.