Editor’s note: This story has been updated with information about the end of the search.
FREMONT – Five days after going missing, 14-year-old Khloe Burgess was safely found.
Khloe was found around 1 p.m. on April 20.
Sandusky County Sheriff Chief Deputy Nick Kotsopoulos said that there are still questions that need to be answered. It appears that she may have never left Sandusky County, and she is home again.
“The are still some details that remain to be determined, but she’s safe and sound, and that’s all that really counts. She showed back up at home,” Kotsopoulos said. “Thank God she’s there now, and that’s what matters.”
The sheriff’s office conducted a night drone search to find Burgess April 15. After that, the sheriff asked the public to share any information to help find her, which led to a number of leads, which were followed up on.
The sheriff’s office said that Khloe Burgess walked away from her home in Fremont April 15. She was last seen around 10:45 p.m.
“As soon as we got the call, deputies went out there and they used our drone,” Chief Deputy Nick Kotsopoulos said the morning after the search. “There were also messages put out there through our law enforcement automated data system. We don’t have her yet, unfortunately, but deputies are working with her parents. Detectives have followed up on numerous leads, but we have nothing yet … She had about a 35-minute head-start.”
Khloe is a 14-year-old white female. She is about 5’1″ and 115 pounds, with brown hair and hazel eyes.
“Deputies perimetered the area and had the drone out with the infrared for several hours last night looking,” Kotsopoulos said. “Our road patrol and our detectives have the school resource officers involved. The deputies have been talking to kids and trying to reach out to other school resource officers, so they are trying to think of every resource and every angle that they can.”
Despite bad weather, Kotsopoulos said that the drone operator told him the infrared was working well, to the point where it was picking up small mammals, like a raccoon.
“He was pretty confident that their search grid would have picked her up,” Kotsopoulos said.
She was last seen wearing green shorts and a gray sweatshirt. She does not have a phone.
The Sandusky County Sheriff’s Office can be contacted at at 419-332-2613.
This story was updated on April 20, to reflect the successful location of Khloe Burgess.
Contact Roger LaPointe at 419-332-2674.
This article originally appeared on Fremont News-Messenger: Missing Fremont girl safely found after 5 days
Reporting by Roger LaPointe, Fremont News-Messenger / Fremont News-Messenger
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
