Carmelita Lakdesha Paul was found safe in Tokyo after going missing on Aug. 13, ending a search that drew police attention across the capital and beyond. The 12-year-old British girl later turned up at a koban in Yokohama on Saturday night and was taken into protective custody.
Police said on Sunday that Paul had been found safe. The timeline matters: she arrived in Japan for a holiday with her parents and older brother on July 21, then left her family's rental accommodation in the Kamata district alone early on the morning of Aug. 13.
Yokohama koban
Paul appeared at the koban in Yokohama at around 8 p.m. on Saturday. That ended the public search and shifted the case from a missing-child alert to a welfare response, with protective custody used after her arrival.
She reportedly told police that she had gone out to visit a location famous in anime and spent time at places like internet cafes, but eventually began to miss her parents. She was 12 years old, traveling with family, and had been out of contact since leaving the rental accommodation in Tokyo.
Tokyo search
The police search followed her disappearance from the Kamata district, where she had been staying with her family. TBS reported the account of her movements after she was found, while police had already released information to the public while trying to locate her.
The route from Tokyo to Yokohama is the unresolved part of the timeline, and the case now turns on how she moved between those two cities during the period she was missing. For her parents and older brother, the immediate change is simple: the search ended with Paul safe, and the next step is the care that follows protective custody.
