Here are two recent news items.
Tuesday January 29 11:39 PM EST
FBI Locates Missing Sisters
The FBI said Tuesday afternoon that two sisters who ran away from their Ypsilanti, Mich., home four months ago were found in West Virginia with their mother, Local 4 has learned.
Kala Lynne Haller, 13, and Elizabeth "Liz" June Haller, 16, were reported missing from their home on Sept. 26.
FBI agents in Portland thought the girls were in Oregon or possibly Washington based on a series of phone calls that began last weekend, including one in which Kala Haller called her father in Michigan. Investigators said that the phone call and one to a Portland 911 operator saying that she had been kidnapped complicated the search.
The sisters have been missing from their Michigan home since late September. Investigators were looking into a link that the girls might have had to Christian Longo, a man with Ypsilanti ties who is charged with killing his wife and three children.
Kala Haller reportedly told her stepmother, Donna Haller, that she met Longo over the Internet. Kurt Haller, the girls' father, has legal custody of the girls. Kurt Haller said Tuesday that he didn't have any knowledge of whether the girls actually met Longo in person or had any type of relationship.
The sisters' mother lives in South Carolina, and investigators suspected that the girls might head there.
After questioning the girls, investigators said they had no reason to believe that the teens might be linked to Longo or that they were ever in Oregon. Authorities believe the calls were hoaxes.
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Wednesday January 30 04:39 PM EST
Mother Of Missing Sisters Faces Charges
The mother of two Ypsilanti, Mich. teenage runaways who became the subjects of an intense FBI search faces charges in West Virginia in connection with their disappearance.
Teresa Claypoole, 48, was arraigned on two counts of child concealment and contributing to the delinquency of a minor and is being held on $50,000 bail.
She was arrested Tuesday after FBI agents tracked her daughters, Kala Lynne Haller, 13, and Elizabeth "Liz" June Haller, 16, to the Hinton, W.Va., area.
The girls were reported missing from their Michigan home on Sept. 26.
Claypoole and the teens' father, Kurt Haller, are divorced and he remarried. Haller has legal custody of the girls.
FBI agents in Portland, Ore. thought the girls were in Oregon or possibly Washington based on a series of phone calls that began last weekend, including one in which Kala Haller called her father in Michigan. Investigators said that the phone call and one to a Portland 911 operator saying that she had been kidnapped complicated the search.
Investigators were looking into a link that the girls might have had to Christian Longo, a man with Ypsilanti ties who is charged with killing his wife and three children.
Kala Haller reportedly told her stepmother, Donna Haller, that she met Longo over the Internet. Kurt Haller said Tuesday that he didn't have any knowledge of whether the girls actually met Longo in person or had any type of relationship.
After questioning the girls, investigators said they had no reason to believe that the teens might be linked to Longo or that they were ever in Oregon. Authorities believe the calls were hoaxes.
The girls reportedly arranged with their mother to live with her in West Virginia.