A 13-year-old boy in state custody went missing after he allegedly ran from University of New Mexico’s child psychiatric center.
The Children, Youth and Families Department confirmed the information Friday afternoon and identified the missing child as Andy Carrasco.
CYFD said New Mexico State Police took Carrasco from a treatment center on July 17. Police transported him to UNM’s Psychiatric Center because he needed acute care.
CYFD said Carrasco left the facility during an internal transfer on August 11 and jumped a fence.
The department told KOB 4 that it notified UNM police, state police, and Roswell police about Carrasco’s disappearance on Tuesday. However, state police said they did not learn he was missing until Friday morning, when UNM police informed them.
“On July 17, New Mexico State Police transported him from a treatment center to UNM Children’s Psychiatric Center due to acute care needs. On August 11, during an internal transfer at the Center, he fled after jumping over a fence,” CYFD’s full statement read.
“CYFD was notified at 1 p.m. that day that he had fled at 11 a.m. Law enforcement—including New Mexico State Police, Roswell police, and university police—were notified that day and the next, along with the missing child hotline and Statewide Central Intake.”
Maralyn Beck, founder of New Mexico Child First Network, said she has been a foster mom to multiple teens. She said minors stayed at the children’s psychiatric center before the new facility opened in June.
“When you are inpatient at Children’s Psychiatric. There are double doors in, like you are badged in, you are badged through, you are signed in, you are checked out, you are signed out and checked in. They do actually have a lot of security measures,” Beck said.
“Now that being said, if this took place on a playground outside and the the kid absconded over a multi 10 foot wall, I don’t know how you prevent that. But I think someone should be asking if it’s happened once, it’s going to happen again,” she added.
She said children running away while in CYFD custody pose a bigger concern. From the beginning of April through the end of June, the department reported 56 children as runaways.
Beck said she worries that a 13-year-old in a behavioral health crisis has spent two days sleeping on Albuquerque’s streets.
The Britney Alert from state police said Carrasco was wearing a brown shirt and blue scrubs. Anyone with information about his whereabouts should call 911 or contact UNM police.
Source contacted UNM police earlier Friday and received no response to its calls. The agencies are yet to respond to questions about when they learned Carrasco was missing as of this writing.
Brant.One will continue updating this article as more information becomes available, helping readers stay informed about the latest developments.
