Crime & Safety

Two Bowie Runaways Returned Home After Arrests in Laurel

Two teenage girls from Bowie were found at the Knight's Inn in Laurel with three others, marijuana, and crack cocaine.

Two Bowie teens and a Glen Arden teen were returned home after police found them in a Laurel motel, reportedly with two adult males and in the presence of drugs.

On the afternoon of Feb. 11, police from Anne Arundel County's Western District's
PACT (Police and Community Together) Unit and District Detective Unit served a search warrant at the in Laurel.

The search warrant was in response to a series of large thefts at the Walmart across the street from the motel. As police began their search, they found two adult men in their twenties with three teen girls along with marijuana and paraphernalia in plain sight.

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The three girls were found to be runaways from Prince George's County, two from Bowie and one from Glen Arden.

Detectives recovered almost 17 grams of suspected marijuana and about a gram of suspected crack cocaine—altogether valued at $270 street value—and $800 in cash.

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In cooperation with the Special Enforcement Division of the Anne Arundel County Police Department, the Maryland Child Exploitation Task Force assisted in getting the runaway girls back home and making sure no other criminal activity involving them took place.

All three girls were charged with possession of a controlled dangerous substance, marijuana. The two girls from Bowie were 15 and 16 years old, the Glen Arden girl was 17.

The men were both arrested and charged with possession of two controlled substances, paraphernalia and the intent to distribute. The older of the two men was 21-year-old Robert John Purnell Jr. of the 3300 block of  Toledo Terrace in Hyattsville. The other man arrested was 20-year-old Jeremiah Aaron Brown of the 3400 block of Lauren Drive in Laurel.


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