Largo, Fla. | A missing transgender teenager has been found safely after being misgendered on the official Largo Police Department Facebook page Feb. 12.
“Help us find runaway Zachary Musgrave,” the police department’s original post, now deleted, read. “He is a Largo High student, 16 years of age. He has not been seen since Jan. 19. He does not have a vehicle.”
According to the teenager’s mother Rebecca Musgrave Garcia, her transgender daughter is known as Sami and also identifies as Samantha Areia Barly. The police department’s post prompted her to make a public plea of her own on the social media platform.
“My daughter Sami is missing. Please share,” her post reads. “The local police department has her listed as her birth name but that’s not the name she goes by, nor the way she looks when away from her father. Please help us find her.”
Musgrave Garcia advises Watermark that Sami was misgendered by her father. The two are divorced, and the Wesley Chapel resident notes that her daughter lives with her ex-husband. “He calls her Sami,” she says, “but still refers to her as ‘he’.”
“The police have dealt with Sami in the past for running away,” she continues. “They know she identifies as female.”
Musgrave Garcia learned that her daughter was found safely by the police department’s Facebook page prior to the post’s deletion.
Musgrave Garcia was subsequently contacted by the detective overseeing the case, who confirmed that Sami was reported as male, but with an alias of “Sami.” After she was located, the police department’s post was updated to include that “Musgrave has been found safe here in Largo,” with a thank you for the community’s assistance.
The post reflected Sami’s incorrect gender identity until it was deleted. Watermark reached out to the Largo Police Department to confirm that Sami has been found.
As for Sami’s mother, she has a message for officials handling future cases. “Make sure [to present] a true representation of the child in need,” she says. “You might end up with a body instead of a child because of your mistake.”
She further urges parents of transgender youth not to “limit yourself to one view of your child. People come in all shapes, sizes and identities. For those who embrace their child without limits, I applaud. For those who see their child through the peephole of society, I’m sorry for you.”
