The Clearlake Police Department reported that missing 14-year-old girl Ashli Athas was found Sunday night. She was a passenger in a vehicle that was reported stolen earlier that day by a Kelseyville resident, according to a CPD report.
Officer Dominic Ramirez stopped a green Mitsubishi Montero near the intersection of Old Highway 53 and Lakeview Avenue at approximately 11 p.m.
The driver, a female juvenile, admitted to stealing the car, according to the report. She was arrested for vehicle theft. Athas”s juvenile boyfriend was also in the car. According to the report, he was arrested for a probation violation on a warrant issued “some time ago.”
Athas was not charged with the theft, according to Lt. Mike Hermann. “There”s insufficient evidence to prove she had knowledge that it was stolen; just riding in it doesn”t make possession of it,” said Hermann. He added that the juvenile driver later claimed to have picked up Athas and her boyfriend.
“We knew she was hanging out with him and that he has been wanted for probation violations,” Hermann said. “That was one of the reasons it was so difficult to find her; she was hanging out with her boyfriend and they didn”t want to be found.”
Hermann said not much is known about Athas”s whereabouts or what she was doing in the 47 days she was missing. “She was in and about the city; she was spotted in Kelseyville and Lower Lake at various times,” Hermann said. “Most of the calls we got were from friends and people she knew who were telling us they had seen her after the fact,” Hermann said. He said he believed Athas may have stayed with various friends and acquaintances.
“She didn”t tell them (CPD officers) much about where she had been,” he added.
Athas went missing from her great-grandmother”s Clearlake home Oct. 17.
Initially reported as a missing person, Athas was considered a voluntary runaway by the CPD after she was contacted by a family friend.
Athas was returned to her great-grandmother. Her name was removed from the missing person system and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which assisted in the search, was notified.
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