Missing Tacoma girl found OK with sex offender

A missing 16-year-old special education student and a 21-year-old sex offender were found asleep Wednesday morning at a north Tacoma home, police said.

Briana Troyer is OK, said police spokesman Mark Fulghum.

Detectives questioned returned Briana Troyer to her family, then questioned the sex offender, and said they would forward that information on to the prosecutor’s office.

Briana Troyer’s father is Pierce County sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer.

“It was a long 14 hours. Thanks for all your support and prayers,” Ed Troyer said on his Facebook page. Troyer is the Pierce County Amber Alert coordinator but didn’t want to talk about his daughter’s case while it was ongoing.

Investigators will determine if the suspect, Terrance Powell, did anything wrong, Fulghum said. He’s a Level 1 sex offender who left a Tacoma bowling alley Tuesday with the girl.

Fulghum issued an Amber Alert for the girl early Wednesday. He says they used a reverse directory to call about 60,000 people in the area where Briana Troyer was last seen.

“After sending out the alert,” Fulgham said, “the tips came in, and one of those tips led us to her.

Police also searched for Briana Troyer with tracking dogs and officers going door-to-door.

One tip led investigators to the home of a Powell acquaintance where the two were sleeping, Fulgham said.

Briana Troyer was at Tower Bowling Lanes with other members of the Wilson High School bowling team for practice, but the coach or supervisor may not have been there at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday when she disappeared, Fulghum said. She is described as having the mental capacity of a 9-year-old.

She was last seen walking away with Powell. Fulghum did not know the criminal history that led to the listing as a Level 1 sex offender. The classification is the lowest level and applied to people, many of them first-time offenders, considered at minimal risk to re-offend.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.