Police are searching for a 12-year-old girl who failed to return to her West Baltimore home Dec. 1 after spending the night with a friend.
Melody McKoy, of the 300 block of N. Mount St., slept over at a friend's house on nearby Saratoga Street on the night of Nov. 30, police said.
She was last seen Dec. 1 about 7 p.m. while on her way home, police said.
"Right now, we're not suspecting foul play," said Agent Arlene Jenkins, a police spokeswoman. "We have no indication she's in harm's way."
But Jenkins said police are concerned because of Melody's age and because she has no money or other means to take care of herself.
Police have no clues to Melody's whereabouts.
Melody was described by police as 5 feet tall, weighing about 100 pounds, with brown eyes and brown shoulder-length hair.
When last seen, she was wearing a blue jacket, blue sweat shirt, blue jeans, yellow socks and white tennis shoes, police said.
The day of her disappearance, Melody left her bike, which apparently had a flat tire, at her friend's house, Jenkins said.
Her mother, Shirley McKoy, reported Melody missing at 12:30 p.m. Dec. 3, Jenkins said.
A friend of the family, Queenie Gregory, said last night that Melody's mother thought Melody may have been staying with an aunt as she has done many times.
But when Melody failed to telephone her mother, Shirley McKoy reported her daughter missing, Gregory said.
"Her and her mother are close as two peas in a pod," Gregory said. "Generally, they know where each other is. That's why it's so upsetting."
Shirley McKoy "just doesn't understand it," Gregory said, "how her child could go away and no one knows where she is."
Gregory said Melody is a sixth-grader at Harlem Park Elementary School who normally goes straight home after school and does her homework.
"She loves school; she's a brilliant little girl," Gregory said. "God knows, I hope the child is safe."
The homicide squad has taken over the investigation of Melody's disappearance from the missing-persons unit, Jenkins said.
Homicide gets involved when the disappearance is unusual, she explained.