LAUDERDALE LAKES, FLA. (WSVN) - Police have located a 5-year-old girl, hours after, they said, she went missing from her Lauderdale Lakes school, Tuesday.
According to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, kindergartner Shinelle Isaac disappeared from Central Charter School, located at 4525 North State Road 7. Investigators said she was last seen at around 2:35 p.m.
Authorities confirmed the girl had gotten on the wrong bus and wound up at a daycare center off Oakland Park Boulevard, several blocks away from her school.
Shinelle’s older sister Shania, a seventh grader, alerted her parents when her younger sibling never boarded the bus. “I went on the bus, and I saw she wasn’t on, so I called my mom,” she said.
Soon after hearing Shinelle was missing, her family posted an urgent message on Facebook, and a caretaker at the daycare center where she ended up saw that post and alerted police.
7News cameras captured Shinelle arriving back at the school hours after she had gone missing. Officials said she was reunited with her parents at around 9:30 p.m.
When asked what went through her mind when she found out her daughter had vanished, Desiree Furlong replied, “My heart stopped beating, and I’m just glad that she’s home.”
Shinelle was not the only South Florida student who ended up on the wrong bus. In Fort Lauderdale, an 11-year-old boy on the autism spectrum somehow wound up in Pompano Beach after boarding a different bus at his Fort Lauderdale school. School district officials are investigating the matter.
RELATED: Boy with autism goes missing in Fort Lauderdale after boarding wrong bus
Tuesday night, Shinelle, her parents, and Central Charter officials were all inside the school discussing what had happened. Even though Shinelle’s family is relieved she was found safe, they indicated the staff at the school was negligent in how they handled the situation.
When asked whether Shinelle will be returning to the school on Wednesday, her older sister Shinice said, “No, she will not.”
Central Charter School officials have not yet commented on the incident.
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