Runaway Michigan Teens Found Safe

Jan. 22, 2008 — -- After more than a week on the run, a pair of missing Michigan teenagers were found safe Monday, playing with sea gulls on a beach in Louisiana.

The nine-day saga of 13-year-old Hannah McConnell and 15-year-old Gage Petherbridge ended when workers at a beach ambulance station in Cameron Parish, La., found the couple and called authorities Monday afternoon.

After being spotted, the teens tried to drive away from the beach in the family van they'd taken, but law enforcement caught the pair. Hannah and Gage were detained for overnight along with Gage's cocker spaniel, Mandy, who joined them on their journey.

After days of sleepless nights, Hannah's and Gage's parents got the call they had been waiting for Monday afternoon.

"They're OK. The dog, the van, both of them!" explained Gage's mother, Mary Wismer.

"It was just like a hundred-pound brick came off me, I started crying instantly," Hannah's mother, Julie McConnell, told reporters.

The local sheriff's office is holding the teens, who will be reunited with their parents soon. Gage and Hannah are in different cells.

The children's parents expressed relief after hearing the duo had turned up 1,300 miles away from their Michigan homes.

"She acted like they were on holiday together," Julie McConnell said.

Before Monday, the most recent information about the couple came Saturday when the families learned Hannah had called a friend in Nevada from a motel room to say she and Gage were safe, but running low on money.

The McConnells had tried to keep the couple apart because they believed Hannah was too young to date. Then Jan. 12, Hannah and Gage left overnight with Wismer's van and $680 in cash, along with the family dog.