Associated Press: A middle school teacher in the Chicago suburb of Waukegan has been charged with obstructing justice after a missing teenage girl was found hiding in a closet at his home.

The 17-year-old girl's family contacted police after she didn't come home on Nov. 7. They filed a missing-person report with police in the city of Zion the next day.

Officers there contacted Lake County Sheriff's deputies, who found the girl at the Beach Park home of 24-year-old Eric Wood on Nov. 9.

Wood and the girl have been in contact since they met in July at car show in Milwaukee, a family member said. The girl's brother filed a report with police Oct. 13, asking officers to keep Wood and the girl from meeting.

The brother said he was told by police that police could do nothing if "nothing sexual was going on between them."

But Zion Police Chief Larry Booth said Wood and the girl told officers they were friends.

"The officer who handled the case did not find any evidence of a criminal offense at the time," Booth said. "Our officer contacted (Wood) and told him to stop seeing the girl."

When deputies arrived at Wood's home, he said he didn't know where the girl was, and let officers search the house.

Wood teaches at Thomas Jefferson Middle School in the Waukegan School District. School officials declined to comment.

Wood is expected to appear in Lake County Circuit Court on Dec. 9.