FILE PHOTO

(KIM ANDERSON / iNFOnews.ca)

KAMLOOPS - A teenage girl has been missing for nearly two full days after fleeing from police and entering the Thompson River, but that remains the only information police are releasing.

Kamloops RCMP sent a news release yesterday, June 29, 12 hours after the teenager was last seen by police. In the release, police asked for anyone who knew of the girl's whereabouts to call RCMP.

But they provided no description of her, no age, no name and no photo. 

Police said they responded to a report of a bike theft around 2 a.m. yesterday. They located the bike and a police dog tracked a scent to a girl found on a river bank under a dock that parallels Royal Avenue on the North Shore. She was subsequently arrested, but before being placed in handcuffs she fled from custody and entered the Thompson River.

A home in the 200 block of Royal Avenue was blocked by police tape yesterday, but it was taken down by this morning. 

Kamloops Search and Rescue had been stationed at McArthur Island yesterday to assist RCMP with the search, but they have not been tasked to the search today.

Cpl. Jodi Shelkie, usually the Kamloops RCMP spokesperson, is away and communications were referred to RCMP's E-Division. That detachment's media relations officer, Staff Sgt. Annie Linteau, said in an email today that there was no update on the search.

"There is no significant update other than we are continuing our physical search of the river," she said.

No one has explained why it took 12 hours to alert the public about a missing teenager who may or may not have still been in the river. 

The Independent Investigations Office has deployed investigators to the city according to communications liaison Aidan Buckley.

"The IIO was notified of this incident and has deployed investigators," Buckley said in an email. "This is to ensure that early investigative work is completed should this case be within the IIO’s mandate of serious harm or death."

Kamloops RCMP Insp. Sunny Parmar has not responded to a request for comment.

– This story was updated at 7:27 p.m. Friday, June 30, 2017 to replace the main photograph in this story,

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