Mom of runaway NJ girl charged with abuse; kids removed from home

EAST ORANGE — She didn't go "missing." She just didn't want to be found by her mother, officials say.

The mother of a 14-year-old girl who made headlines after going missing for a month has now been charged with child endangerment a day after her daughter was found in New York City, where she had been staying at a shelter.

After a media blitz about her disappearance, Jashyah Moore walked into an NYPD precinct in Harlem but was not immediately reunited with her family. Turns out, there was a reason.

Although Jamie Moore, who cried in front of cameras last week, insisted her daughter was not a runaway, Acting Prosecutor Theodore Stephens said Friday morning that the teen was "an extremely resilient and resourceful young lady and she decided she wanted to be someplace other than where she had been and she made it happen."

Stephens said there was no open case involving the teen and her family with New Jersey's Department of Child Protection and Permanency. But hours later, his office announced the mother's arrest on charges that include allegations of physical abuse and neglect.

Jashyah and her 3-year-old brother were removed from the home, Stephens said.

Moore will be held at the Essex County Correctional Facility pending an appearance in the Essex County Central Judicial Processing Court.

Vocal critic of police

Jamie Moore was not happy with the law enforcement search for her daughter and disputed that she reported her daughter as a runaway.

“That is not true! I said she went to the deli and never came home,” she told PIX 11.

Friday morning before Stephens' press conference, Moore kept up the criticism on a GoFundMe page she created to fund the purchase of flyers, posters, and T-shirts to continue the search.

"No mother should go through what I have these last few weeks," she wrote on the fundraising page. "My family and I want to ensure certain legal channels are altered to better aid families in preventing possible tragedies. This includes certain law enforcement protocols like the Amber Alert. Please help us make a difference."

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNJ