RHEA COUNTY SHERIFF’S PRESS RELEASE ON TEEN FOUND SAFE

Rhea County Sheriff’s Office has released a statement regarding the missing teen, Maddison Neal.

Sheriff Mike Neal would like to let the community know that Madison Neal has been found Safe. This would not have been possible without the assistance of multiple agencies, to include the FBI Chattanooga Office, the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department Crime and Intelligence Analyst unit, United States Marshal Service, Bradley County Sheriffs Office, Cleveland City Police as well as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Hundreds of man-hours went into this investigation.

We feel it is important for the community to know that we attempted multiple times throughout the investigation to have an Amber Alert issued however, this particular case did not meet the TBI’s Criteria. The hard work and dedication of all the agencies and officers involved has been overwhelming. I, like everyone in my department, are grateful that this case had a successful outcome and this young lady is safe. Parents should be continually vigilant in knowing what social media platforms their children are using and who they are talking to on those sites.