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Two teens who walked out of an eating-disorder program in Dedham found several hours later in a nearby swamp, after a search that included a State Police helicopter
By adamg on Fri, 04/07/2023 - 1:05pm
Dedham Police report two 14-year-old girls walked out of a residential treatment center for teens with eating disorders on Carematrix Drive, off 128, yesterday afternoon.
That sparked a search that brought in state troopers in a helicopter- and sparked erroneous online reports that the two were a pair of adult women who had escaped a state prison in Norfolk.
Police say the search ended around 7:40 p.m., when the chopper troopers spotted the two two n the swamp behind the treatment center and the Boch Ice Center. Guided in by the troopers, Dedham firefighters, police and EMTs got the girls out of the swamp and to a local hospital for observation, police say.
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Comments
Eloped?
Were they trying to marry each other, or did you intend some other verb? (I don't think 14-year-olds can do that in Massachusetts.)
You caught me using policespeak
It's a common term for people who have left a treatment facility or hospital, as opposed to "escaped," which might not be appropriate for something like this, as opposed to a prison.
Elopement
Essentially means to run away
"You misunderstand," she said.
"I'm not eloping with you, I'm eloping from you."
It's a term of art
"Elopement" is also a term of art in alzheimers units, which operate in kind of a gray area. In general staff are good at using distraction, redirection, and logic to convince residents not to try to leave, but, ultimately, the residents of an assisted living facility are not legally committed; their relationship with the facility is, approximately, tenant to landlord; and the facility doesn't have any clear-cut legal right to forcibly stop a resident from leaving, so "escape" isn't really the right term.
These were minors
If the facility is in loco parentis - acting as their wards in place of their parents - then isn't escaped more fitting?
Just wondering if that makes any difference.
It's also
the preferred term for people with autism who are prone to wandering/running away. Colloquially you'll hear parents and people who work with kids calling them "runners." But elopement is the correct term for it.
I have been to many of these
I have been to many of these centers and they themselves also refer to running away as "eloping," so definitely the accurate word to use