MISSING GIRL: Search for 6-year-old enters third day

BREMERTON, Wash. -- The search effort for a missing 6-year-old girl near Bremerton has now doubled in size.

Close to 80 people are scouring Janise Wright’s neighborhood and the nearby woods and retention ponds, including members of the FBI.

The girl was last seen Saturday night but her parents didn’t report her missing until late Sunday night. Early Tuesday, no new updates were avialable.

Jenise’s parents said they’re used to allowing her to walk through the neighborhood on her own without supervision.

When she didn’t come home for dinner on Sunday, that’s when police were notified.

“My head’s just swimming, I don’t know what to think,” said Jenise’s father, Jim Wright. "She went to bed (Saturday night), she was asleep. Wake up, (and think) she's probably out running and playing."

The little girl was allowed to roam the Steele Creek neighborhood all by herself.

“She had pretty much (been) allowed to go at will, roaming around the neighborhood,” said Kitsap County sheriff's deputy Scott Wilson.



As dozens of searchers scoured the neighborhood for Janise, Child Protective Services pulled the two remaining children, ages 8 and 12, from the Wright home.

“Sheriff detectives developed enough probable cause that they felt that it would warrant the safety of the children to be removed from the house at this time but I can’t go into details for why,” said Wilson.

Search and rescue teams from across Western Washington are now part of the search, including Seattle, Tacoma and Bremerton police.

So far Jenise’s parents are not part of a criminal investigation but police say everything is on the table.

“That will be determined by detectives,” said Wilson. “They’re going to sort through that. Our focus right now from a patrol and search and rescue standpoint is to find that little child.”

Now the FBI is a part of the investigation, plus officers from the child abduction response team.

So far, police are saying this disappearance is not an abduction. Wilson said it's being handled as a missing person case with suspicious circumstances, mainly because she's been gone so long without a sighting.

The Kitsap County Sheriff's Office said another department's investigators asked the girl's father to take a lie detector test and he agreed.

Jenice is described as being about 3 feet tall and 45 pounds with dark hair. Anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to contact police.


Neighbors are still upset that she hasn't come home yet.

Debbie Peckman said, "She didn’t really leave the park I always saw her in the park. She would go down to the little park down there. She pretty much knew everyone. She was very outgoing. Not shy at all."