Authorities ID missing girl from Columbus in Atlanta

A girl who was found shot to death in Atlanta after running away from a Columbus group home has been identified, authorities said Friday.

Atlanta authorities identified the girl as 17-year-old Denetta Franks, a resident of a group home in Columbus before she ran away from the state facility, said Police Lt. Joyce Dent-Fitzpatrick of the Special Victims Unit of the Columbus Police Department. Franks’ deaths is now a homicide investigation after she was found slain Sept. 21 in the middle of Hortense Place Northwest near the intersection of Florence Place Northwest.

With help from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the Atlanta Police Department issued an alert for help identifying the teen after her body was found a few hours after she was shot. There was no ID on the body.

The girl’s family saw a circulated composite of the girl circulated by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and called police.

Dent-Fitzpatrick said the report of a runaway and missing person was filed with the Columbus Police Department on Sept. 7 after the teen left the facility. “We have closed our missing person case,” she said.

When the girl was found, she was wearing a long-sleeve black Adidas warm-up jacket, a blue and white striped t-shirt, black denim jeans, multicolored socks, and pink Nike flip flop sandals. A red flora scarf also was found underneath the girl.

This story was originally published October 6, 2017 at 9:28 PM with the headline "Authorities ID missing girl from Columbus in Atlanta."