An extensive, month-long operation by the U.S. Marshals Service has recovered nearly 80 children reported missing or endangered in Ohio, believed to be the largest such operation in the state’s history.
The effort was helped by Cleveland’s Amanda Berry, who more than a decade ago became one of the most stunning abduction cases in U.S. history when she escaped after being held captive for a decade with two other girls in her kidnapper’s home.
On Tuesday, Ohio’s northern district of the service announced in a statement the conclusion of “Operation Meridian,” which was launched in August in coordination with federal, state, and local partners and resulted in the recovery of 79 children ages six through 17 in various parts of the state, according to its news release.
Meridian “focused on children reported missing due to a range of circumstances including suspected sex trafficking, physical and emotional abuse, neglect, run away children, and other forms of endangerment,” according to the statement.
The service apparently employed the law enforcement tools it already had on hand.
“The United States Marshals Service, through its fugitive task forces, locates and arrests the most violent fugitives in our communities,” U.S. Marshal Michael Black said. “Using the same resources and methods we have the ability to seek and recover missing and endangered children.”
“We are proud to be able to assist our law enforcement partners in locating and reuniting missing children with their families,” he added.
One of the cases cracked in the operation involved two sisters, ages 13 and 16, who had been reported missing in July 2024 and April 2026, the service said.
Acting on leads, they discovered the 13-year-old hidden in a basement crawl space under the floor of a bedroom closet in a Columbus area home. The mother of the child was arrested on a probation violation and her older sister was later located as well, the service said.
In another case, a 16-year-old who had been reported missing by the Toledo Police Department was thought to have fallen victim to human trafficking, according to the release. Toledo police and marshals found the girl in a home in the central part of the city along with an adult male. The girl was transported to the hospital for evaluation while the adult male is being investigated for “potential criminal activity.”
“Every recovered child represents a life pulled back from danger,” U.S. Marshal Pete Elliott said in the news release.
The Marshals team was provided with some unique motivation and insights when the effort was launched.
Amanda Berry, a Cleveland woman who was kidnapped and held captive for a decade before her 2013 escape, addressed the marshals before the operation, according to a press release.
Berry’s case made national headlines and captivated the nation with details about her kidnapper, how she survived, and how she eventually escaped. Kept as a sex slave, Berry was impregnated by her captor, a former school bus driver and merengue band musician named Ariel Castro.
Berry, only 16, escaped with her daughter, who was six years old at the time. Castro, 52, was sentenced to 1,000 years in prison but reportedly hung himself in his cell one month into his sentence.
Berry, 40, who is a national speaker and an advocate for missing children, has with worked the marshals and other law enforcement agencies before, providing investigators with insights into both captor and captive, police have said.
“We were so fortunate to have our friend Amanda Berry partner with us during Operation Meridian,” Elliot said. “ She addressed our team prior to the operation and told them to treat every missing child like they were our own.”
The service has not yet released how many people were facing charges in the recovery cases.
Breitbart contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times true crime best seller House of Secrets , which documents one of the worst cases of child sex abuse in U.S. history, and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
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