WAHPETON (KFGO-AM) -- Richland County Sheriff Larry Leshovsky has demoted a deputy who took a missing person call regarding a 15 year old girl.
The Abercrombie teen was found in a ditch nearly a day after she was first reported missing. She has since been released from the hospital.
Leshovsky says the Deputy Jerry Arneson broke a number of policies, including not calling a supervisor right away and delaying a search. It wasn't until a media alert and code red went out the next day that the fire department and community members helped search for the girl, who was found lying in a ditch outside of town.
The sheriff is now requiring dispatchers to call the on-duty supervisor right away if they receive a call of a missing person.
Arneson had been a deputy for 14-years.