The case of a missing 15-year-old girl from North Carolina has finally been solved five years later, but the ending comes with a twist.
Rachel Natacha Owens, who disappeared in May 2011, was found safe Friday in Columbus, Ohio. She is now 21 years old and went to great lengths to change her identity and hide her whereabouts, authorities said, adding that she "left and remained away on her own will."
Owens assumed a false identity and date of birth, the Brunswick County, North Carolina, Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
Video footage showed Owens getting off her school bus at South Brunswick High School in Boiling Springs Lake, North Carolina, on the day she vanished. She was seen getting into a car in the parking lot and then disappeared, according to the Wilmington Star News.
Reports say Owens had run away before but was never gone long. Authorities followed leads in the U.S. and Mexico, according to FBI special agent Rich Novelli. Owens once had written a story expressing a desire to go to Mexico, where friends thought she might have headed.
An FBI representative said the agency started to receive information that she might be in Ohio in 2014.
Novelli said he met with Owens’ family Friday and informed them that she was found alive and safe, adding that now they can “move on with rebuilding their relationship.”
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