Runaway teens found in Florida

Teresa Zuerlein awoke at 7 a.m. Sunday to a phone call, and what she heard on the other end of the line washed away a week's worth of worrying.

Her daughter had been found. She was alive.

“It’s a huge relief that Sami is alive, just a huge relief,” Teresa said of her daughter, who was found in Titusville, Fla., after going missing March 15.

Police in Titusville found Sami and Racheal Bates, both 16, sleeping in a Wal-Mart parking lot, inside the 1997 silver Lincoln Continental they had fled in. According to Teresa Zuerlein, Titusville police ran the Nebraska license plates of the car and learned the girls inside were missing. They then contacted Lincoln police, who called Teresa.

“It’s very insane,” Zuerlein said. “We’re shocked that they were that far away and really surprised that they kept on the move. That’s probably why they flew under the radar as long as they did.”
Earlier reports indicated the teens might have been en route to New Mexico or Wisconsin. But Friday, Zuerlein got a call from her daughter's phone that changed that thinking.

It was an employee at Lens Crafters in Goodlettsville, Tenn., near Nashville. He found a phone at the bottom of a trash can outside the store, turned it on and called the number saved as "Dad."
Zuerlein thinks the phone had been turned off the entire trip — there was a flood of 50 or more messages and missed calls — and that Sami ditched the phone to combat an impulse to contact family.

The girls, who are physically unharmed, are being held in a local Titusville hospital and will be there for at least 72 hours, Teresa Zuerlein said.

Dave Bates, Racheal Bates' father, said the waiting period is due to the Baker Act, also known as the Florida Mental Health Act, which allows law enforcement to examine a person if they appear to have a mental illness or present a danger to themselves or others.

Zuerlein has yet to talk to her daughter, but she plans to do so as soon as she can.

The tentative plan is to have the teens' fathers fly down to Florida to escort their daughters home.
Dave Bates said he’s waiting to hear back from the hospital.

“The next step that I’m focusing on is to figure out how to get them back to Nebraska and what kind of care we can get them into when they get back.” Bates said. “Right now it’s all a big question mark on time frame and how it’ll all pan out.

"I’m just glad that they’re found safe and thank everyone that looked for them and helped with this process.”

Reach the writer at 402-473-7223 or cheady@journalstar.com.