Cops: Two Syosset teens found, 1 still missing from group home

Definitely good news finding the two teens. Hopefully the third can be located as well.  

NY Newsday reports a 15-year-old boy who left a Syosset group home Sunday night in the bitter cold remained missing Tuesday night, though Nassau police found two companions in Bay Shore and returned them Monday night, officials said.


Police confirmed Missing Persons Squad officers located Shakeem Smith, 14, and Gabriel Hernandez, 16, but said detectives were still trying to find Jonathan Acevedo, 15.

The trio disappeared from the MercyFirst group home on Convent Road in Syosset about 8 p.m. Sunday -- especially alarming, police said, because Smith has a cognitive disability.
Gerard McCaffery, president and chief executive of MercyFirst Group Homes, said by telephone the two boys were just "hanging out" when they were found by police.

He provided no further details about where they were located. Bay Shore is about 22 miles from Syosset.

"We are happy to have the two youths back and will keep doing all we can to find the third youth and have him returned as well," he said later by email.

Such incidents were not "infrequent," he said, and typically involved youngsters who want to be with family or friends.

"They went AWOL; they wanted to be someplace other than us," McCaffery said.
One of the teens who was retrieved "triggered this," he added.

The one teen's disability handicap prompted the police to issue a Silver Alert, the way they would for an adult suffering from Alzheimer's or dementia, a Nassau police spokewoman said.

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