A 17-year-old boy at the center of a missing-child search was feet away from police the whole time, hidden inside his mother’s New Jersey home in a basement crawl space, authorities said.
Jennifer Buckley now faces a charge of obstructing the administration of law after East Brunswick police said she gave officers a false trail while helping conceal her son.
The boy’s father set off the search Tuesday evening when he reported that the teen had failed to appear for a custody exchange.
Instead of pointing police toward the basement, Buckley allegedly told officers the teen was not in her house, that she did not know where he was and that he had resisted going to his father’s home.
She also reportedly raised the possibility that the boy could hurt himself, which pushed the case into a safety-driven search involving patrol officers, other department personnel and detectives.
“The East Brunswick Police Department initiated an extensive effort to locate the juvenile,” the department said. “Patrol officers and other department personnel devoted significant resources to the search, while detectives conducted a follow-up investigation in the days that followed.”
Police also placed the teen’s information into the National Crime Information Center before Buckley’s version of events began unraveling, authorities said.
That trail led officers back through Buckley’s front door, into the basement and to the crawl space where the teen was found.
Police said the boy had been hidden there from the start of the search, with Buckley’s help.
Authorities found no evidence that he had been hurt.
East Brunswick Police Chief Frank LoSacco said missing-juvenile reports demand an immediate response when a child’s safety may be at stake.
“Whenever a juvenile is reported missing, particularly when there are concerns for that child’s safety, our officers take the report seriously and commit the resources necessary to locate them,” LoSacco said in a statement.
LoSacco credited the patrol officers, detectives and other department personnel who brought the search to an end, then warned that false statements can siphon police away from people facing real emergencies.
“Providing false or misleading information to law enforcement undermines those efforts and unnecessarily diverts officers and resources away from members of our community who may need immediate police assistance,” LoSacco said.
A separate missing-child case in southwest Wyoming began with a tip at a Walmart and ended with a 6-year-old Michigan boy back with his father after his mother allegedly tried to outrun police with him in the car, according to Cowboy State Daily.
Marisa Calliea, 30, was arrested Monday after crossing from Michigan into Wyoming with Liam Malburg, who had been missing for about a week.
Police said Calliea did not have custody of Liam and was supposed to bring him back to Justin Malburg, the boy’s father.
A caller who spotted Liam at the Walmart also gave police a description of a 2014 gray GMC Terrain, according to a probable-cause affidavit cited by Cowboy State Daily.
Police Officer Nikoli Knezovich located the SUV before 10 a.m. and watched the parking lot for about a half hour until Calliea and Liam came out, the outlet reported.
When Knezovich approached them, Calliea allegedly identified herself as Maria Peters and told the officer the boy’s name was Will.
As the officer tried to check those names, Calliea allegedly got into the GMC, started it, stepped out after he ordered her to, then climbed back in and sped away through the Walmart lot.
Police said she drove past shoppers near the storefront at speeds up to 40 mph before reaching the road with Liam still inside.
The GMC then went through a red light, traveled the wrong way on a one-way street and cut in front of another driver, according to the affidavit.
At one intersection, the SUV hit the pavement with enough speed to lift off the ground before stopping a short distance away.
Officers removed Calliea from the GMC and arrested her. Because the airbags had deployed, medical personnel checked both Calliea and Liam before the child was returned to his father.
Calliea was charged with child endangerment, interference with a peace officer, possession of a controlled substance, fleeing or attempting to elude police, reckless driving and driving while her license was canceled, suspended or revoked.
Police also said the GMC contained 2.35 grams of suspected marijuana.
Investigators later spoke with Calliea’s stepfather, who owned the SUV and said she had contacted him about problems with Malburg, according to the affidavit.
Calliea allegedly told him that Liam’s father had choked her and that she did not feel safe.
Her stepfather said he gave her travel money without knowing where she planned to go.
Calliea faces six misdemeanors and remained at the Uinta County Detention Center.
In Utah, another mother was accused of crossing a line in a child dispute after prosecutors said she tracked down an 11-year-old boy she believed had bullied her autistic son.
Shannon Marie Tufuga, 40, was charged with child kidnapping and aggravated child abuse after the September 17, 2025 encounter in Provo, according to court records.
The boy was on his bike when Tufuga allegedly pulled in front of him and made him “get into her vehicle,” according to the charging document.
Authorities said she took the child to her home without permission from his parents and made him apologize to her son.
Tufuga had written in since-deleted Facebook posts that her son is on the autism spectrum.
Even after the apology, the charging document said, Tufuga threatened to have her husband beat the boy up.
She also allegedly told him he “was lucky she did not run over [his] bike.”
Authorities said Tufuga eventually drove the boy back to his parents’ home in Provo.
“The incident has caused [the boy] serious emotional distress,” the charges state. “[He] now has high anxiety and has had to alter his daily routines significantly.”
