PALMYRA, Maine — When Sanborn Quimby went to bed on Wednesday night, his two granddaughters were home and in bed.
Sometime before 3 a.m. on Thursday morning, 15-year-old Harley McGinnis had left.
“She and her [13-year-old] sister sleep in the same room. When she got up, [Harley] was gone,” Sanborn Quimby of Palmyra said on Saturday. He and his wife, Sue, are the grandparents and guardians of the two girls and their brother, Ben, who was staying in New Hampshire at the time.
Quimby said the Somerset County Sheriff’s Department is investigating the disappearance.
“Basically, she took a few clothes, not very many. Just pretty much what she was wearing,” said Sue Quimby. “She took her pocketbook, birth certificate, social security card, driver’s permit and her iPod. That’s about it. [Harley’s sister Helena] thought she took some pictures too.”
Harley had been threatening to run away for a while, said Sanborn Quimby.
“I don’t think she’s thinking straight at all,” he said. “I think it’s more of a rebellious teenager thing. She’s not stupid. She planned this out very carefully. She pulled it off pretty smooth.”
Sanborn Quimby said he’s concerned about Harley and where she might go.
“We’re worried about her more than anything,” he said. “A lot of teenagers want to leave home, but don’t realize how limited their options are. A lot of people are looking to make use of runaways, especially pretty girls.”
Only her 16-year-old brother, Ben, has been able to get in contact with Harley, who had been text messaging with her iPod.
“When she texts her brother, she basically told him to stop texting her and leave her alone,” said Sue Quimby.
Sanborn Quimby said a family friend told him he thought he saw Harley in St. Albans late Thursday morning. The people at the home on Nokomis Road said she wasn’t there, according to Quimby.
He said he hopes she is still in the area and hasn’t taken off out of state.
“I’m pretty upset and pretty down,” said Sue Quimby. “We can’t find her. She won’t answer our calls. She won’t talk to us. We’ve been really worried about her.”
“We’d like her to at least call us, to know if she’s OK,” said Sanborn Quimby on Sunday. “We don’t know if she’s even in the state. Nobody got texted [Saturday from her]. We have no way of knowing where she is. We’d like to have her home, but we’d like to know if she’s OK.
“Her little 3-year-old cousin Katie has been asking for her,” he added. “She always thought quite a lot of Harley.”
Anyone who may have seen Harley McGinnis is asked to contact the Somerset County Sheriff’s Department at 474-6386.
I hope she is found safe, and SOON!!!
There are way too many predators out there looking for this type girl. I hope she’s not naive enough to fall into one of their traps!
Would it be possible to ping her phone/device? I’m sure the authorities have done that by now… :(
Have the police subpoena her cell phone calls, chances are whomever she is talking to may know where she is.
The article states she took an iPod, which she used to text her brother. It makes no mention of a cell phone. There are still some teenagers who don’t have cells.
And here this geezer sits thinking an ipod was a white, 2 inch wide device for recording/ playing music. They have a keyboard now? Wait! I don’t want to know! :)
Some have a touch pad keyboard, which is only visible when neede. You made me chuckle, thanks for that. In all seriousness though, I hope she’s found safe!
I asked that you not tell me, but no! Now I’m as angry as a teenage daughter is with her mother as a son is with the father! Seriously though, that is the nature of the beasts as they prepare to leave the nest. I just hope that she comes to no harm and returns to her senses soon (thankfully, mine did). :| Here’s to hope, ’cause it’s damned scary for the parents….
If she is messaging with her iPod, then she is probably using Facebook. It’s not the same as a cell phone. Not sure if they can track her ip address. If they have login access to her Facebook account, they might be able to track her down where she is connecting from. Go to Account Settings and click on the Security tab on the left. Select “active settings” and it will give the location of all current sessions. Doesn’t pinpoint it, but it should let you know if she instate or out. Good luck.
That’s not always accurate either. Many times I’ve been sitting in my home on MDI, and FB has my location as Buffalo, NY. It’s a good place to check though, just the same.
I just looked at my FB log in history. In the past week, I’ve logged in from Georgia 5 times, South Carolina once, and New York twice. All without leaving Maine!
Maybe you’re being hacked? :)
Nah, it’s all times that I’m actually on. It’s just not accurate. I have FB open in another tab, and my current session is from Buffalo, NY.
Just like my iPhone. I can be in Dixmont and it will say i’m in Orrington.
Thanks. I’m sure you’re onto something I wasn’t aware of (and don’t want to). That’s why I suggested ‘device’, but have no idea what the minutiae entails. I hope there is some way Zuckermann will forgo his privacy policy and give out the info a little more freely this time!
well, there are plenty of text free apps and untraceable apps for ipods that, to my understanding, can not be traced/tracked. Not completely sure how that works though…….
I know there are for an ipad, but I thought an ipod was a simple music device. Also, no matter what route you use, your device will need to communicate somehow such as through a tower, so, to the best of my extremely limited knowledge, it should be traceable.
The iPod touch is basically a smaller version of the iPad, so…
Maine’s runaway laws are not in favor of this family. She is 16 and legally can’t be forced to go home nor can the police hold her for long. No one can be charged with harboring or helping a runaway in this case. Maine’s law needs to be revised!
I’d say call the Shaw House (or whatever the ‘homeless shelter’ for teens is called now) but they won’t tell you if she is there if she said she was being abused, whether she is or not!
Good luck to this family, I hope she comes home.
The article says she is 15 years old, not 16.
The shaw house will have a meeting with u if she is there,and know that u r looking for her.My daughter ran away along time ago.I went to the shaw house, and asked if she was there. I told them all i wanted is to know if she was safe cuz i was looking everywhere and i was scared. would they please help me. I cant remember if it was 24 or 48 hours. They set the appointment.
My friends daughter ran away last year. She told the shaw house her mother was abusive (making her follow rules is abusive now I guess). They would not confirm that her daughter was there. They don’t have to. You were lucky that your daughter wasn’t ‘street smart’ enough to know that little trick to avoiding your parents if you are at the shaw house!
The article stated she is 15 years old and the police can force her to go home, if they can find her. But how hard are they going to look and if she continues to run what can they do?
I hope she is safe and not being led away from home by bad friends. BUT I also hope they will ask her why she ran away–she’s been threatening to run away for awhile–so there must be a reason. The guardians might be great people but someone else in her life (at school, a neighbor) can also harm teens. When I was around her age, I was abused and wanted to escape my current situation. I was not able to confide in anyone and adults around me (like at school) seemed clueless.
when I was 15 I was rebellous too. Not from abuse, but simply because I didnt want to follow the rules. She is probably hiding out at a friends house. She will come home when her friends tire of hiding her.
Where is the mother? She is probably running to one of her parents.
please tell me that’s a joke.
Not sure where you are getting your facts for this — but they are absolutely not true. Hopefully you are trying, however inappropriately, to scare this girl to return home by threats to her family, but your claims are not true. Please feel free to prove me wrong.
In what world do you reside?
my w0rld
Like I said…prove me wrong. You troll these stories and throw your two cents worth in without a bit of credibility. Get a hobby.
He has a hobby. It is trolling these stories and throwing in his two cents worth without a bit of credibility.
To those who responded to Al. Ever hear of Sarcasm?
I hope you find her safe.My prayers are with u and your family.
Wherever she is, I hope she is safe. This is not a safe world for a teenager out on their own. It is barely safe for adults these days. The time I grew up in was much more safe, because it your parents weren’t there to look out for you, everyone else’s parents were there, to watch over you and to keep you in line. I count myself lucky to have grown up when I did, and would not want to be 15 again for anything.
I hope she is reading the BDN and sees this article. I hope she quickly comes to understand that it’s hard enough for adults to make it today… teenagers don’t stand a chance. I hope she finds her way back home, both physically and emotionally, before anything bad happens to her. Harley… if you are reading this call home. One day when you become a parent you will come to understand how frightening it is when you don’t know where your child is. Look down the road… is where you are headed really where you want to go? Call home Harley… if you are reading any of this everyone here wants you to call home.
Sad situation. Although the Quimby’s didn’t plan on being guardian grandparents, they found themselves in this situation and have tried to make the best of it for their grandchildren.
How selfish and unappreciative of the 15-year old. Guessing that there’s going to be other sad events for this teenager (and her grandparents) to deal with.
Keep your chins up, Quimbys. Hope she is found soon and with a changed attitude.
That is the first I have ever heard of this, Al. Maybe you should check your references again…
Wow, she probably doesn’t realize just how good she has got it. I know I am an adult, and if I could go back to the days of living with my parents rent free and bill free, I would jump at it. However at the time I am certain I had the same attitude as this girl. I am sure going out with some 25 year old loser and drinking and smoking pot and whatever seem like its the coolest thing in the world right at this very minute, but her grandparents love her, and from the sounds of it they want her to grow up to be someone and do something with her life. The sad part is that this little girl probably won’t realize that until she has already ruined her life. I wish the grandparents the best of luck in bringing her home, I only hope she stays if they get her back though.
….
Just guessing, it doesn’t seem like the grandparents are molesting or beating her, so what other reason would she have for taking off? Usually that type of thing happens with that age group when kids get a tad big for their britches and feel like they are mature enough to make grown up decisions. I might be totally wrong, just speculation, but it could be one of those “”You just don’t understand our love!!” situations come to a head… I hope they get her home safe and sound and not pregnant though first and foremost.
This girl looks very well taken care of…. however the pictures make her look very sad. Hope she comes home soon.