A Latrobe couple has been charged with corruption of minors for allegedly assisting a 17-year-old runaway from an Adelphoi Village group home in a plan to flee to Georgia in September.

Eric L. and Michele L. Mallin, 50 and 48, are charged by state police with assisting the girl.

The monthlong investigation began Sept. 26 after the girl had second thoughts and returned to the group home in Derry Township, where she was required to stay by court order, according to complaints filed with Unity District Judge Michael Mahady.

According to Trooper Paige Shreffler, the juvenile ran away from the home Sept. 25 and encountered Michele Mallin, who was leaving the Sheetz store on Route 982 in Latrobe.

The girl asked for help, and Mallin drove her to a nearby home, Shreffler said in court documents.

“(The girl) told Mallin she couldn’t go back to Adelphoi,” Shreffler quoted the runaway as telling authorities. Shreffler continued: “Michele Mallin invited her to come with her and she would help.”

Once at the home, the runaway reportedly told the Mallins she had fled Adelph0i and planned to leave Western Pennsylvania for Georgia to meet a girlfriend she met recently over social media.

Shreffler alleges that, at the Mallin home, Eric Mallin cut the girl’s hair “so she couldn’t be recognized.”

The Mallins also are accused of driving the girl to the Greyhound bus depot at nearby Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Unity, where the girl’s friend from Georgia had provided her a prepaid ticket the afternoon of Sept. 26. The bus was expected to depart about midnight Sept. 27, state police said.

Shreffler said state police acquired security video from the airport on Sept. 26 showing both Mallins in the car with the runaway when she picked up her bus ticket.

Meanwhile, local authorities contacted police in Georgia about the girl’s plans to flee there. The runaway subsequently had second thoughts and decided to return to the Adelphoi home about 6 p.m. Sept. 26. The girl had been at the Adelphoi home since July 17, according to police reports.

“She returned to the group home wearing different clothes and with all her hair cut off,” Shreffler wrote.

Troopers traced the vehicle to the Mallins by acquiring the license plate number through the airport security video.

Shreffler said she questioned Eric Mallin, who admitted helping the Adelphoi runaway.

“When asked why he didn’t call police, (Eric) Mallin said, ‘This is my wife’s doing. … Let me get her so you can ask her,’ ” Shreffler wrote in court documents.

When Shreffler posed the same question to Michele Mallin, Shreffler said she replied, “The girl ran up to her as she was leaving Sheetz and said she needed help.”

Neither Mallin could be reached for comment, and a defense attorney was not listed in court dockets.

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)