 |
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Police have found a missing Michigan girl and arrested the Indiana convicted murderer she was traveling with, the California Highway Patrol said.
A CHP trooper stopped a suspicious looking vehicle near Susanville, Calif., northwest of Reno, Nev., said CHP spokesman Tom Marshall.
Lindsey Diane Ryan was riding in the truck with Terry Drake, 56, Marshall said. Drake had met the Ryan family in church and he and the 14-year-old girl later corresponded by e-mail.
Drake had been considered to be heavily armed, in part, with weapons stolen from Ryan's home.
The white pickup had been painted black, but "something about the truck caught (the trooper's) attention and the license plate matched up," Marshall said. "He got her out of the vehicle," then arrested Drake without incident.
"She appears to be in good condition," said CHP Commissioner D.O. "Spike" Helmick.
Ryan left her home near Jones, Mich., a small town near the Indiana state line, early on March 1 to meet Drake a short distance away, police said. The two left the area together in Drake's pickup truck.
Michigan, Indiana and California all issued Amber Alert warnings seeking tips on Lindsey's whereabouts.
Drake spent 16 years in prison for killing a woman from the Evansville, Ind., area in 1977.
Drake and his wife, Darlene, were living about 20 miles from the Ryans when they met the family at First Assembly Church in Goshen, Ind.
Terry Drake told the Ryans he was a born-again Christian with a notorious past, and that his faith had helped him leave it behind.
He and the girl had been corresponding by e-mail for months, authorities said.