Minor Kept a 12-Year-Old Girl Locked in a Car All Night in Saraj, Mother Reported Her Daughter Missing

At 01:00 on 13 November, a mother from Skopje reported to police that her 12-year-old daughter had left the family home in the Bit Pazar area around 18:00 the previous day and hadn't come back. The girl only came home at 07:40 in the morning.

What happened in between, the mother reported later. According to her report, the 12-year-old and a friend, also a minor, met several minors in a park in Saraj. One of them then locked the girl in a passenger car against her will. He stayed in the car with her and her friend until the next morning.

The Interior Ministry says it is taking steps to get to the bottom of the case. So far it hasn't said whether anyone has been detained.

All night a mother searches for her child, while the child sits locked in a car. The case raises questions the police need to answer: whose car is it, how did a minor get hold of it and the keys, and did any adult know where the children were that night? A 12-year-old girl can't be just one more item in the morning bulletin.