Kuwaiti teen missing in the US found safe and unharmed
Eman, the 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl who absconded from a house in Florida where her family was vacationing, has been found safe and unharmed.
Dean Sparks, Lincoln County Deputy Sheriff, said that Eman who was vacationing with her family in Kissimmee, Florida, was found living with an American family in McCook, a small city in Southwest Nebraska with a population of approximately 8,000.
Eman allegedly knew the American family from the Internet. According to the police, Eman, riding a bus from Florida to Omaha, had made arrangements to be picked up in Omaha. She had been staying in McCook for about a week when a relative of the US family saw a missing person flyer with her photo and notified the family who then called the McCook police.
Officers from Red Willow County Sheriff’s Office delivered Eman to a secure juvenile facility where she is reuniting with her mother and siblings, Sparks said.
“She’s a very lucky young lady,” Sparks said in a press release, quoted by North Plate Telegraph.
According to a release earlier this week by the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department, Florida authorities have alerted the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office of a missing teen that they believe may be in North Platte.
“Kuwait citizen Eman and her family were vacationing in Kissimmee, Florida when Eman was left alone at the house where they were staying. Upon her family’s return, Eman was missing,” the police said.
Kissimmee Law Enforcement Officials tracked Eman to a local bus station where she boarded a bus for Omaha, Nebraska, and requested a ticket to North Platte.
Employees at the bus station told investigators that she said she had family in North Platte. However, her family told authorities that they had no family or friends anywhere in the United States.
An investigation by the local police in cooperation with the Kuwaiti embassy in Washington led them to believing the missing girl was in the Omaha and McCook areas.
“The cooperation from the Kuwait government has just been tremendous,” Sparks said. “That type of cooperation is what helps agencies bring these types of things to a successful conclusion and we are very grateful.”
