Alison Chao, the 15-year-old Monterey Park girl who was missing since last Tuesday, has been found safe, her father’s attorney confirmed to KTLA.
Chao went missing around 5:30 p.m. on July 16 after riding a blue mountain bike away from her father’s house in the 200 block of North Ynez Avenue. She was headed to her aunt’s house in nearby San Gabriel.
Her aunt called her father at about 8 p.m. to alert him that Chao never arrived at her home.
After a week of intense searching, Chao was spotted in Glendale and police were alerted at about 9:30 a.m. Glendale Police told KTLA’s Kimberly Cheng that officers located Chao in the area of Flower Street and Sonora Avenue.
Chao is now safe and is with Monterey Park Police, according to Glendale PD.
The news was later confirmed by the City of Monterey Park, which expressed gratitude to community members and law enforcement for their aid in the weeklong search.
In a statement, attorney Emily Robinson, who was appointed as Chao’s counsel by the Superior Court of Los Angeles, said that Alison’s mother, Annie Chao, was previously awarded “sole decision making authority” and sole custody of Alison.
“This is a very complex situation that should not be in the public forum. It is being rendered even more damaging to Alison by misleading and inaccurate social media posts from third parties that have virtually no understanding of the facts,” Robinson said. “Upon being made aware of these posts, I have reported them to the social media companies on which they are hosted in the hopes that the companies will quickly act and take them down due to the inaccuracies contained therein.”
As of 2 p.m. Tuesday, there is no public indication as to why Chao disappeared.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates. KTLA’s Will Conybeare contributed to this report.