THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 30, 1995 TAG: 9510300040
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
Once unknown streets became painfully familiar to Rich DeCosta as he repeatedly cruised the Oceanfront Sunday, searching for his missing daughter.
Jane DeCosta, 15, is somewhere in the area, he believes. She may be alone now that her one-time companion, 16-year-old Benjamin Scott Garris, is being held on murder charges. Or she may have blended into the shadowy community of runaways who stroll the streets and sleep in nearby woods and under bridges.
``The first time she ran away, she was 12,'' said DeCosta, 44, during a break from his search Sunday night. ``She's continued to do so, up to 20 times, since then.''
It's not a case of running away from something, her father said. Rather, ``She's always looked at it as adventure,'' said DeCosta, a drywall installer in Timonium, Md.
Jane DeCosta and Garris are believed to have fled Maryland shortly after the Oct. 8 stabbing death of Sharon Edwards, 28, a counselor in a group home for troubled boys at the Sheppard-Pratt Hospital in Towson, Md.
Police believe it was Garris - known to be fascinated by violence and possibly emulating characters in ``Natural Born Killers'' - who stabbed the counselor. It is unclear whether Jane DeCosta was aware of the murder when the pair fled.
Garris, of Frederick, Md., was the subject of a nationwide police search. But his arrest was made after a convenience store clerk claimed he stole candy and cigarettes on Friday.
The clerk later told police that a teenage girl had been in the parking lot while Garris was in store but had fled.
Garris faces an extradition hearing today to determine whether he will be returned to Maryland to face murder and arson charges. Jane DeCosta faces no charges, but her father hopes she will go to police and return home.
Garris and Jane DeCosta met at Sheppard-Pratt Hospital, her father said. She was a day student there; he was a full-time resident.
``He called our house a number of times, but I never met him personally,'' DeCosta said. He didn't quiz his daughter because she had been doing so well since being enrolled at the school.
``We've done all we can to help her out,'' he said. ``In the last eight months she's been doing quite well. . . . it's the longest period of time she's done so well.''
DeCosta said he was able to find one person at the Oceanfront who recalled seeing his daughter in the past week, but efforts to talk with street kids were fruitless. ``They don't talk to you a whole lot when they are in groups,'' he said.
Jane DeCosta has always traveled with a friend when she ran away before, and that worries her father.
``Now that Ben Garris has been apprehended, she's on her own,'' he said. His message to her: ``The adventure is over. . . it's time to give up and get going with her own life.'' ILLUSTRATION: Jane DeCosta may be in this area. Her father is searching for
her.
KEYWORDS: RUNAWAY by CNB