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Woman Turns Up 11 Years After Disappearing
- Published_at:2013-05-02
- Category:News & Politics
- Channel:WorldwideNewsChannel
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- description: *Subscribe WWNC for more Worldnews!* A woman who disappeared 11 years ago after dropping her children off at school has been found living on the streets in Florida. Police in Lititz, Pennsylvania, say Brenda Heist, 53, came forward last week in Key Largo, Florida. She said she has been living in tent camps and under bridges in southern Florida since 2002, when she disappeared without a trace, leaving behind a daughter and son, then eight and 12 years old. Her former husband, Lee Heist III, had asked her to be declared legally dead three years ago. He was initially investigated as a suspect in her disappearance. Mr Heist told reporters on Wednesday he was angered by his ex-wife's actions because of how his children had been hurt. Mrs Heist told police she has survived by working cash-payment day jobs, panhandling and eating food thrown out by fast food restaurants, Lititz Detective Sergeant John Schofield told the Intelligencer Journal newspaper. Det Schofield told the newspaper Mrs Heist is "apologetic and ashamed" for having disappeared without a word. Mrs Heist told police she left Pennsylvania after a chance encounter with two homeless people who were heading south. She had been in the middle of divorcing her husband and was sitting in a park, distraught that she would not be able to support herself and her two children. The two strangers invited her to hitchhike with them to warmer climes. Mrs Heist "just snapped", Det Schofield said. "She said she made a split-second decision... She doesn't know why she did it. She just left," he said. Mrs Heist has not been reunited with her family yet, and told police she knows it will be up to her children, now a college sophomore and a recent university graduate, to initiate contact. Her husband remarried in 2009. Det Schofield said her mother and brother are now helping Mrs Heist rebuild her life.
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| 2013-05-04 | 18,801 | 2 | 2 |
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