Police seek 5 runaway siblings

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Five siblings, including a 7 year-old, ran away from a county-managed home and remained missing Wednesday.

The Nicholas children disappeared on Tuesday from Child Haven, a home for children who have been removed from their homes and placed into protective custody.

Police have taken the unusual step of asking for the public’s help in finding them. Las Vegas has as many as 1,700 missing person cases a month but rarely alerts the public.

“Someone would probably have information about a group of five kids, and the fact that we have a 7- and a 9-year-old — these are kids that would have difficulty caring for themselves,” police Officer Laura Meltzer said.

After leaving the home, the children flagged down a woman and asked for a ride to a relative’s house. The woman dropped the kids in northeast Las Vegas, where they had once visited an older sibling, Meltzer said.

Police do not believe the children were abducted.

They were identified as Demetri, 7, Sarah, 9, Luchiano, 11, Violet, 13, and Savannah, 14.