Khloe Dunbar vanished on July 16 near Columbus, triggering a desperate search by her mother, Megan Dunn, and a missing persons alert. But just days before Khloe was found safe, bystander video captured a troubling encounter: police pulling over a car, speaking to the missing child, and allowing her to leave with adults.
“I’m sick to my stomach,” Dunn told 11Alive. “I have video footage of these officers, and they let that little 12-year-old that was reported missing go. It’s not OK. None of this is OK.”
According to Columbus police, officers didn’t even realize the girl in the footage was Khloe until the TV station sent them the video.
“It wasn’t until you sent us that cell phone video that we even knew about the traffic stop,” admitted Sgt. Joe Albert. “We wish we had handled it differently. We wish she had been returned to her parents.”
The Missed Opportunity
Bodycam video from the stop shows officers pulling a man and two women from a Chevy Malibu. When they questioned Khloe, she gave a fake name and claimed she was 15. After pressing her, she gave her real name — but officers failed to recognize it, despite an active missing person alert. They arrested the male driver but let Khloe leave with one of the women.
Witness Daeja Rutland filmed the stop and only later realized she had captured the missing girl.
“I looked at that video one time and I knew it was her,” Rutland said. “The first thing I saw on Facebook when I got home was that little girl’s face. My heart stopped.”
Near Tragedy
Dunn says the mistake could have cost her daughter her life. She claims Khloe was dangerously close to a fentanyl overdose and on the verge of being trafficked.
“The police had her — no regard for any of it. It’s negligence,” she said. “I want to hear, ‘We failed you and your family.’”
Khloe was found the following day — six days after disappearing — thanks to the cell phone footage being circulated online. But for her mother, relief is mixed with anger.
The Columbus Police Department says it has launched an internal investigation into how the botched traffic stop happened.