City police are searching for a 14-year-old girl who snuck out of her house Friday afternoon and has not been seen since, according to her mother and city police.
Alaina Waite, a 5'6", 220-pound white girl with brown hair and glasses, took the Route 5 Cortland Transit bus to Cincinnatus on Friday afternoon but did not return, according to Karen Waite, her mother. Waite said in a phone interview with The Cortland Voice her daughter rode her ten-speed, blue and white mountain bike to meet the bus at the Cortland County Office Building and then took her bicycle on the bus with her.
Alaina Waite has a mental disability called Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder, which her mother described as similar to bipolar disorder. Twice previously the 14-year-old has tried to commit suicide by overdosing on her medication, Karen Waite said. The girl does not have her medication with her.
Karen Waite noted the day before her disappearance Alaina Waite was diagnosed with an additional learning disability that leaves her especially susceptible to manipulation. The girl also argued with her mother that day over a 24-year-old man she was romantically interested in. Waite forbid her daughter from meeting the man.
Alaina Waite stayed home from school Friday with her grandmother after she said she was ill, Karen Waite said. While her grandmother was out walking the family dog, snuck out of the house and rode her bicycle to the bus stop, she said.
City police are investigating, and spoke with the 24-year-old man, but have not yet located Alaina, according to Karen Waite.
While Alaina has walked to the park when she was upset before, she has never left home overnight, Karen Waite said. “She’s never been gone all night, and we’re talking two nights going on three,” Waite said.
Anyone with information is to call city police at 607-753-3001.
