Family members of a missing 13-year-old had told U.S. Marshals searching for her that she wasn't there.
Then, authorities found the crawlspace.
Hidden beneath the floor of a bedroom closet inside the Lockbourne home, the small compartment had been fashioned as a hiding place. Inside, authorities found the girl, upset but unharmed.
Why the family hid her there was “one of those anomalies that even myself, I don't particularly understand,” said Deputy U.S. Marshal Abbie Graora, who was at the scene when they found the girl. Marshals also found her 16-year-old sister, also missing, later that day at a Columbus restaurant.
“I think at the end of the day, when ... [a] parent is no longer legal custodian, they have a hard time with that, and the child
wants to stay united with the parent,” Graora said.
The two teens were among 79 children found during Operation Meridian, a partnership among local, state and federal agencies to find missing and endangered Ohio children. The U.S. Marshals Service declined to share more details, citing a need to protect the children's privacy.
Some were suspected victims of sex trafficking, abuse, and/or neglect, and some were suspected runaways. The missing or endangered Ohio children ranged in age from 6-17, and authorities found them as far away as Georgia.
Marshals also arrested several people with outstanding warrants, including the mother of the 13-year-old girl in the Lockbourne crawlspace. One man faces a charge of interfering with custody for having a child without informing their custodial parents or authorities. Local police are following up on many other cases to determine potential charges.
Finding fugitives, missing kids require the same skills, different demeanor
The U.S. Marshals Service is most known for finding and arresting dangerous fugitives, but finding missing children is also part of its mission.
“All our law enforcement partners, we each have a skill set,” said Michael Black, U.S. Marshal for the Southern District of Ohio, which includes Columbus and central Ohio. “The U.S. Marshals Service, we’re the hunters. We are the best at locating, finding and apprehending people that are on the run.”
That means marshals are well-equipped to find missing children, though it takes a different demeanor, Black said.
“They have to change their entire mindset,” Black said. “These guys are all tacked up, they’re ready to go, but they have to take a deep breath and realize, we’re not going after a fugitive this time. We’re going after a juvenile that’s going to be scared to death.”
Graora, the Columbus U.S. Marshals office's missing child investigations coordinator, transferred to the Southern District of Ohio in May 2025. Black said the office recruited her because she ran similar operations in Washington.
The process can be frightening for some children, Graora said. She tries to take time to speak with them and give them a chance to confide in someone, share what might have happened to them, and connect them with resources.
“I always like to try and build some rapport with the children, just to let them know that they have an outlet, they have a safe place, they have someone that actually cares for them and wants to make sure that they're getting the resources provided, they're getting the connections that they need,” Graora said.
She said she aims to make sure they aren’t simply turned over to their families without any help. Marshals work closely with non-law enforcement agencies like children services to pair them with resources.
Backed by federal government, marshals work with local authorities
Graora said she and her Northern District of Ohio counterpart, Deputy Marshal Jordan Fisher, have worked hard to ensure that happens.
“We're always on the phone together,” Graora said. “We're always talking about what resources we've found that are lacking, where we could go and get the assistance necessary.”
The children do not always react well to being found, Graora said. They do not always understand that their circumstances are unsafe. It can be a tough conversation to have, she said.
“There's a lot of nuance when you're dealing with missing [children] cases because it's not necessarily that what they're doing is wrong,” Graora said. “They just think that's the only option. These kids are scared; they're frightened; they don't want to go.”
Graora said marshals built on extensive casework local police had already produced to help locate the missing and endangered children. Many of the cases, especially the Columbus cases, involved long-term missing juveniles. From there, they started knocking on doors and rebuilding ties with family members and other people who might know where the children could be.
“We have to go to these locations, start talking to people, put a face to the name and say, the U.S. Marshals Service is behind this case,” Graora said. “We’re looking for your child. … We’re just making sure they know there are people actively looking for their children.”
The tips began to roll in, Graora said. The Marshals Service continues investigating more missing children cases, including more tips and cases it received this month.
Black said he wants other law enforcement agencies to know marshals can assist with this type of work. He considers Operation Meridian a great success, due largely to the support of local police, but there is still work to be done.
“Now that they see this and see how successful we are when we collaborate, we're hoping that is a big push toward helping us recover as many children as we can,” he said.
Public safety and breaking news reporter Bailey Gallion can be reached at bagallion@dispatch.com.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Her family said the teen wasn't there. Marshals then found the crawlspace
