CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) — Fourteen-year-old Deborah “Abby” Jenkins, last seen with 41-year-old registered sex offender James Ronald Bell, has been found safe Tuesday, Chesapeake Police said. Police are still looking for Bell.
She had been missing for two days and counting as Chesapeake Police in Virginia were continuing investigating this as a CODI Alert case — a case of a missing or endangered child — and not an Amber Alert of abduction. A process is underway now to cancel the CODI Alert.
Her legal guardian, Christine Burton, told 10 On Your Side’s Andy Fox that she was told by the case worker that Jenkins will be in the custody of Portsmouth Social Services.
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Jenkins disappeared from a Comfort Inn & Suites in Chesapeake around 1 a.m. Monday. Chesapeake Police were following leads in the search.
Bell is a registered sex offender from a 2011 case in which he was found guilty of two counts of aggravated sexual battery. He is the former boyfriend of Jenkins’ legal guardian, Christine Burton, who NewsNation affiliate WAVY has been told is cooperating with police to solve the case.