6-year-old girl missing in Bremerton

BREMERTON, Wash. — Police are looking for a 6-year-old girl who was last seen by family members on Saturday night.

Jenise Paulette Wright was last seen around 10 p.m. when she went to bed at her home in the 1400 block of Northeast Steele Creek Drive in East Bremerton. The girl lives with her parents and six siblings in a mobile home park. Two of those siblings are adults.

Both of Jenise’s parents agreed to take polygraph tests on Monday. They were administered Monday night by the FBI.

Investigators from the State Patrol Crime Lab entered the house around 8:30 p.m. to collect evidence. They took pictures and carried out items from inside the home.

According to her family, Jenise has left their home on previous occasions and wandered around the neighborhood with siblings or friends, but checks in every few hours. When the family awakened Sunday morning and she wasn’t in the house, they assumed she was somewhere in the neighborhood.

“She is a social butterfly, she’s the youngest, she's a spoiled little brat, and she’s the princess of the household and she gets her way most times than the others and the older ones can’t stand it," said the girl's father, Jim Wright.

Police said the family became concerned when they hadn’t heard from Jenise by 8:30 p.m. Jim Wright said when she didn't show up for dinner, he organized a search and began going door to door in the mobile home park. When they couldn’t find her, they called 911 at 9:55 p.m. on Sunday, call records show.

Kitsap County Sheriff’s deputies arrived at the mobile home park at 10:34 p.m. and requested help from the sheriff’s search and rescue unit. Central Kitsap Fire and Rescue responded with a thermal imaging device to help find the missing girl.

A ground search with search and rescue volunteers and K-9 teams began about 1:30 a.m.

Scott Wilson of the Kitsap County Sheriff's Office said a command post for search and rescue has been established at Fire Station 41, near the Steele Creek Mobile Home Park where Jenise lives.

Wilson said 37 searchers, three dog teams and seven counties are participating in the search. The mobile home park has been searched and teams are now going to search wooded areas.

KIRO 7 noted the 24-hour delay between when the child was last seen and when relatives called 911.

When asked about the length of time before calling police, Jim Wright said they had been looking for his daughter during that time and that a neighbor had reported the child as missing a few hours earlier.

Wilson said the focus now is on finding Jenise and any decisions about the reporting delay by her adult relatives would be made later by the Kitsap County Prosecutor, however; Child Protective Services removed two other children from the home, an 8-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl, on Monday morning. Another child, a 16-year-old boy, lives at the home but is currently out of the area.

“As detectives got into the investigation, they realized there was probable cause to remove two children from the house,” said Wilson.

Wilson said he couldn't go into the reasons why the children were taken from the home, but said it was related to a case history with the family.

Neighbors told KIRO 7 Jenise wandered around the mobile home park by herself, and with other friends. They’re worried she might have trusted the wrong person.

“She’s a sweet little girl. She’s kind of naïve. I hope no one took advantage of it,” said Greg Camenzind whose daughter plays with Jenise.

Jenise has been entered into the FBI National Crime Information Center as a missing child.

There’s a checkpoint set up at the entrance of the Steele Creek Mobile Home Park. Deputies are taking driver’s license information from ever driver and searching vehicles.

They’re also showing people a picture of Jenise to see if they have any information that could help them find the girl.

The girl is a mixed race of Caucasian and Filipino. She is 3 feet tall, 45 pounds with brown eyes and black hair.

Anyone with information about the girl’s location is asked to contact the Sheriff’s Office via the Kitsap County Central Communications at 360-308-5400.

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