No sign of Md. youth home runaway missing since 2007

For more than four years, there have been no signs of a teenager who ran away from a Forestville youth home. Carlos Portes was 16-years-old when he was last seen on Oct. 6, 2007. Portes was a ward of the state at the time he ran away, but authorities want to find him even though he has “aged out” and would now be 21 years old, said Melinda Stevens, director of the missing-children division of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

“When they turn 18, they are deemed to be adults. They can do as they please,” Stevens said. “We’re still searching for these children because we must make sure that they are alive and well at the age of maturity.”