Police: Bodies of Missing Teens Found in Arizona Water Retention Basin

Two girls, aged 15 and 17, who were reported earlier in the month as runaways from a local group home were discovered dead over the weekend, officials say

Two teen girls who were reported runaways from a Mesa, Ariz. group home were found dead in a water retention basin in the area Saturday, according to officials.

Mesa police identified the bodies as 15-year-old Kamryn Meyers and 17-year-old Sitlalli Avelar. There is no official cause of death declared yet, but based on evidence, authorities deduced the bodies had been in the water for a while before being discovered.

Foul play is suspected but not yet confirmed, police told AZ Family News in Phoenix, Ariz.

The teenagers were discovered when a man walking his dog spotted what he at first thought was a mannequin in the water and called authorities to investigate, according to WAFB News.

The two girls had been staying at a group home near the basin, and had been reported missing on Jan. 7, the news outlet said

The home is one of several operated by Powerhouse Youth Facility Inc., which has several locations in Arizona.

NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING & EXPLOITED CHILDREN

According to its website, the home hopes to provide a "comprehensive focus of moving abused and neglected children towards self-sufficiency."

Brad Miller, an attorney for Powerhouse, told ABC15 that the girls had a history of leaving previous group homes.

"They're not allowed to lock these children in these facilities. So oftentimes the children are free to leave," Miller told the outlet.

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One of the girls had been living at the Mesa location for a month, while the other had logged two months there, he said.

He added that the staff at the Mesa location reportedly had information that the two girls planned to flee, which they acted upon by first trying to stop them and then calling authorities, according to the ABC15 report.

Meanwhile, local police are tirelessly working to put the pieces of what happened together.

Mesa Police Det. Richard Encinas told Fox 10: "Our detectives have not stopped working on this case since Saturday. We don't wait on a medical examiner's report to kind of guide us in a direction. Our investigators have been going nonstop at this since it happened."

"Most of us have children, most of us have teenagers around that age so we definitely feel the effects of that," he added.