Karen Gleason
A 14-year-old girl and her six-year-old sister are back on the ranch after making a run for it in their grandfather’s pickup truck.
The two girls made it as far as Abilene before they were detained by law enforcement officials, picked up by their parents and returned to a local ranch, Val Verde County Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez said Tuesday.
“A woman called us at 9:48 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 23, with a missing persons report. The caller was a resident of Whitetail Road off U.S. Highway 377 in northern Val Verde County. She told us that her 14-year-old granddaughter and the girl’s six-year-old sister had left the ranch in a 2018 GMC pickup truck, which was owned by the girls’ grandfather,” Martinez told The 830 Times in a telephone interview.
“The woman told us the 14-year-old was driving and that the girl had met someone on TikTok and was supposedly going to Florida to meet him. That piece of all this is still under investigation,” the sheriff added.
Val Verde County Sheriff’s Office deputies and investigators with the sheriff’s criminal investigations division got involved and were able to track a phone in the truck, Martinez said.
“At 12:30 p.m., the phone pinged in San Angelo, and the truck was spotted outside a Stripes convenience store there. The phone then traveled to Abilene, where the Taylor County Sheriff’s Office got involved and detained the two girls about 2 p.m.,” Martinez said.
The sheriff said the girls’ parents were notified and drove to Abilene to pick up the two youngsters and the truck.
Martinez thanked the members of his staff, as well as members of the Taylor County and Runnels County sheriff’s offices and the Texas Department of Public Safety, who all played a role in the girls’ safe return.
“An effort by everyone involved led to the girls’ safe return,” Martinez said.
He said his investigators will be interviewing the girls.
