A Jacksonville teen was found safe Monday after she abruptly ran away from home over the weekend.
Her mother’s emotional plea for the safe return of her teenage daughter, who ran away over the weekend, resonated with hundreds of thousands of people accross social media.
Her parents say that Kyleigh Kosters, 13, was last seen at her Lake Fern Drive home in Mandarin at 11 p.m. Saturday, according to the missing persons report.
The teen was nowhere to be found the next morning.
The teenager clearly stuffed pillows under her bed covers to make it appear as though she was at home sleeping, the report said.
She left the home at some point before 7:45 a.m. Sunday morning.
Her father told police that this is the first time that Kyleigh, who is adopted, has run away, according to the report.
He said that his daughter, whose biological mother may have been involved in the sex trade, recently asked about prostitution. He said that her Google search history includes: “how to find a john” and “what is a pimp.”
The teen’s adoptive mother posted her daughter’s image on Facebook, imploring the public to help find her child.
The post has been shared over 750,000 times since Sunday morning.
“I have an emergency and need prayer,” Kim Kosters wrote in part. “My daughter is missing since last night.”
No further information was available regarding her whereabouts during the time she was missing.
Father Gains Custody Of Daughter’s Body, Stuck In Morgue For 2 Months
According to a criminal complaint, the young girl became ill on November 26, and her mother, Azlyza Ababneh, thinking she was lazy, beat her with a belt and plastic pipe.
Amina was taken to the hospital, where she died on December 10.
The girl and her two siblings stayed with their mother in house that had no heat or running water, the criminal complaint also stated.
The girl’s body remained in the county morgue since her death because her mother, who is Muslim, objected to plans by the father, Michael Krouser, to cremate the body on religious grounds, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
As Ababneh is not charged with homicide, she retained the right under Wisconsin law to determine how her daughter’s remains should be handled, which led to the ongoing custody battle.
Krouser had admitted to being absent and said that since his divorce, he had paid little if any child support.
Circuit Court Judge David Borowski, while granting sole custody of the body to the father, criticized him for being absent from his children’s lives for years.
“You show up on the scene after your 14-year-old, who you haven’t seen in eight or nine years, is beaten to death. Allegedly. It’s a classic situation of too little, too late. Had you been an actual father, involved father, involved parent, you might have been able to prevent this,” Borowski said in court.
He ordered that Krouser arrange a funeral, saying it “would be a further indignity to this poor child” to leave her in the morgue for any longer.
Ababneh has been charged with abusing and neglecting her daughter, which resulted in the girl’s death.