She Stayed All Night With a Neighbor : Missing Anaheim Girl, 6, Turns Up Safe

A 6-year-old Anaheim girl, missing for about 24 hours and at one point feared kidnaped, turned up safe and sound Friday afternoon, having spent the day with a neighbor.

It was 1 p.m. Thursday when Robin Marie Young was left with the neighbor while her father, James G. Young, took his wife to the doctor. Young said the neighbor had told him that she was going to take Robin on some errands with her own two daughters.

But the neighbor kept the girl all night, at a relative’s house, prompting fears of an abduction. And not until Friday afternoon was Robin reunited with her tearful family.

When the neighbor and the three girls had failed to return by dinner time Thursday, Young said his wife, Sharon, assured him that the woman, whose 6-year-old daughter plays with Robin almost every day, tends to be late.

Known Only as ‘Carmen’

The Youngs, who live on South Paseo Carmel and also have an 8-year-old son, said they knew the neighbor only as “Carmen” and she had moved in eight months ago.

By 11 p.m., Young said, he was frantic. Telephone calls and knocks on the door of the neighbor’s house had produced no response, so he called police.

The incident was not made public, however, so late Friday morning, Young began calling the news media. And the Adam Walsh Center in Orange, an organization that assists parents in finding their missing children, got involved.

“Robin has our phone number and address memorized,” a tearful Sharon Young said early Friday afternoon, minutes before hearing that her daughter was safe. “She knows to call in. What could have happened?”

After returning home with the Young’s daughter, the neighbor, who refused to give her name, said she felt terrible about keeping Robin all night without informing her parents. She said her niece was supposed to call the family and didn’t. “I just got through yelling at her on the phone,” the woman said.

Neither the woman nor police explained why she had not returned home Thursday night.

Police, who also did not identify the neighbor, said no charges will be filed since the case was not being treated as a kidnaping.