Missing 13-Year-Old Irving Girl Found

Two men charged with holding girl against her will

A 13-year-old girl missing since Dec. 13 returned home safe Tuesday morning. 

NBC DFW's Julie Tam was outside the girl's home getting ready to report a live update when she returned. The teenager was greeted at the front door by her father.
 
Her mother said her daughter was dropped off by an unnamed person at an Albertson's grocery store. But the girl didn't say what city the store is in or how she got home from there, her mother said.

Her parents said they saw bruises on her but got no explanation of how she was hurt.

"I'm just glad she's home, and now we're going to find out what happened, and we're going to get those people," her mother said. "And the police is going to take care of it. I think it's because of the news that people saw her, and they let her go because of that."

The mother said she was asleep when her daughter came home and crawled into bed with her. Her daughter was crying and screaming, she said

The girl's parents asked her if she wanted to go to the emergency room, but she said no.

Suspect Apologizes in Jailhouse Interview

One of two men arrested in the girl's disappearance said in a jailhouse interview that he met her at a basketball game.

Humberto Corona said she voluntarily left with him and a friend.

He also apologized to her family.

"I'm sorry for what I did," Corona said. "If I could take it back, I would. But I can't."

He said the girl stayed with him and a friend in an apartment overnight, and that she left the following morning. He said she was never abused.

"We didn't want to do with her no more, so we just let her go," Corona said. "We didn't think she was going to stay missing for like eight days."

He said he knew police were looking for him and his friend and said he hid because he didn't want to go to jail.

Police said more charges are possible against Corona and Todge Thurman and other people.

Two Men Arrested in Connection With Girl's Disappearance

Two 20-year-old men were arrested on charges of holding Emily Wicks against her will after she disappeared from a middle school basketball game, police said.

The girl vanished Dec. 13.

Her family placed yellow balloons in their front yard Monday around a sign: "All we want for Christmas is [our daughter]."

"We just want her," her father said Monday. "That's all I care about."

"And if somebody has her, if they just let her go," her mother pleaded on Monday. "Just let her go."

Surveillance video shows that the girl voluntarily left the basketball game with the two men, police said.

Corona and Thurman were arrested Friday and Saturday on charges of unlawful restraint and held on $75,000 bond. (See the corrected arrest affidavit's for Corona and Thurman here.)

Both were being held in the Irving city jail Monday night.

It was unclear why Corona and Thurman were at the basketball game or if they had any connection to the school.

"I think she made a bad choice to get in the car, and then something horrible happened," the girl's mother said on Monday.

Her parents said one of the men lured her from the school by offering to give her a tattoo.

Irving police said Monday that investigators initially believed the girl simply ran away but later feared foul play.

"We're very concerned for her safety," Officer John Argumaniz said. "A 13-year-old, normally after a few days -- three or four days or a little longer -- normally a friend or family member has seen or heard from her. To this point, no one has seen or heard from her."

The girl's parents said investigators found her purse in a car belonging to one of the suspects. Police wouldn't confirm that information.

"That says to me she was in that car and they had her and they didn't release her or she would have taken her purse," the girl's mother said.

Her parents said she is a straight-A student. They said she wasn't in any trouble at home and had never run away.

"My concerns right now are that they had her and did something terrible to her, and she can't come to me," her mother said Monday. "It's been too long. If they released her, she would have come or called somebody."

"We just want her home," her father said.

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