14 DAY TRIAL // A woman missing for 11 years from her home in Lititz, Pennsylvania has turned up in Key Largo, Florida, very much alive.
Brenda Heist, a married mother of two disappeared in 2002, prompting a massive search mission for her. Her husband, Lee, filed the missing person report on February 8, 2002.
Heist turned herself in at Monroe County Sheriff’s Office in Key Largo on April 27th, recounting how she has been living on the streets since her disappearance.
She had hitch-hiked with a group to Florida, where she begged and cleaned boats for a living, eating out of trash bins and sleeping under bridges.
WGAL informed that the now 53-year-old woman was declared legally dead by her family in 2010. She took off after dropping off her children, 8 and 12 at school and dumping her car.
Her son has recently graduated from West Chester University where her daughter is now a sophomore. Lititz Police Detective John Schofield details that she has mentioned her family and missing them.
"I can't believe that she would leave her two children. [...] I just can't, as a mother, I just can't believe that," neighbor Arlene Bingeman told police.
"She said she thought of her family and her children every day, and her parents. However, she never acted on that and never made any phone calls – not one," Schoefield says.
She has run off because of financial troubles and tense divorce procedures, and police believe that she is not consuming drugs.
Preliminary reports show no evidence of mental issues in Heist's case, but she has mentioned having issues with her health upon showing up at the police station.
"I think she just has had it and she was tired of running.
"I was shocked. Our department was shocked. Cause I will tell you, I was convinced something horrible happened to her years ago," Schofield adds.