Sainsbury's worker tracks down missing four-year-old American girl from his Surrey bedroom 5000 miles away
Harry Brown contacted child's estranged father on Facebook and convinced him to share his address by offering to buy him a pizza
![Yvette Henley is now safe and living with her grandparents Gary and Kim Forester in California](https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2017/08/14/09/yvette-forester.png)
Your support helps us to tell the story
As your White House correspondent, I ask the tough questions and seek the answers that matter.
Your support enables me to be in the room, pressing for transparency and accountability. Without your contributions, we wouldn't have the resources to challenge those in power.
Your donation makes it possible for us to keep doing this important work, keeping you informed every step of the way to the November election
![Head shot of Andrew Feinberg](https://static.independent.co.uk/static-assets/support-us/andrew-feinberg.png)
Andrew Feinberg
White House Correspondent
A British supermarket worker solved a US missing person’s case when he located a four-year-old girl online from his bedroom.
Harry Brown was able to track down Yvette Henley to a motel in Arizona – 5,000 miles from his Surrey home – where she was being held by her estranged father.
An avid gamer, the 21-year-old had been contacted by the child’s grandparents, Gary and Kim Forester, after it emerged Mr Brown was a friend of Virgil Henley, the girl’s father, on Facebook, according to MirrorOnline.
The girl’s grandparents were granted custody in June, after a court found Yvette was suffering “emotional damage” and was in danger.
But Henley allegedly absconded with the child and police launched a child abduction case.
Mr and Ms Forester contacted Mr Brown to plead with him to help with the case and try to reach out to Henley.
Mr Brown, who works in Sainsbury’s, managed to convince Henley to share his exact location, including his room number, by striking up a conversation with him over two days and offering to send him a pizza.
But instead of the food showing up at the hotel room, police arrived and took the child to her grandparents in California, where she is now living.
“I spend my life on the internet but little did I know that talking to random people would lead to me finding this little girl,” Mr Brown said.
“She is loving where she is now. I cried so much when I saw the photos of her with her grandparents.”
San Bernadino County Sheriff’s Dept said: “The missing person report for Yvette Henley was filed by her grandfather on 20 June in Hesperia.
“He believed Yvette was with her parents and he had not been able to reach them.
“The grandfather was given guardianship of Yvette also on 20 June.
“At the time he filed the report it had been 10 days since he had last seen the three of them.”
A spokeswoman added: “On 9 July the reporting party contacted the Hesperia Station stating he had been advised that the child was located in Kingman, Arizona.
“Child Protective services was contacting Kingman and the reporting party stated he would be going to Kingman to pick up the child.”
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments