Police: 14-year-old runaway from Denver found at Colorado Springs homeless camp

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) – A runaway missing from Denver since late last year was found this week at a homeless camp in Colorado Springs.

According to police, the CSPD Homeless Outreach Team was on a routine patrol Tuesday morning, checking on camps set up near a drainage ditch in the area of Garden of the Gods Road and Chestnut Street, when they noticed a woman doing drugs with a young teen nearby. Investigating further, the officers discovered she also had financial documents that didn’t belong to her.

“Seven victims were identified regarding the found financial documents,” the Colorado Springs Police Department said, though it didn’t elaborate on what those documents were.

While arresting the woman, police say she told them the 14-year-old boy was her son, and when asked, the boy told the officers the same. Police took him with his “mother” to a CSPD substation, where the Department of Human Services was called.

That’s when police learned all was not as it seemed.

“During the discussion with DHS and the juvenile’s placement, it was learned by officers that the female suspect provided a false name for the juvenile male. Officers were able to properly identify the juvenile male and learned he was a reported runaway out of Denver back in December of 2023,” a CSPD lieutenant said.

The boy’s family was called, and they reunited with him at the substation later that day.

The woman is facing felony charges of criminal possession of a financial device, and additional charges of drug possession, drug paraphernalia possession, and child abuse. She has been booked into the El Paso County Jail and has not been publicly identified at the time of this writing.

Police are now investigating what the relationship was between the suspect and the teen.

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