Missing Florida 4-Year-Old Found Safe in Tennessee After Multistate Search
Four-year-old Rebecca Lewis went missing from her home Saturday morning.
— -- A 4-year-old girl who went missing from her Lakeland, Florida, home Saturday morning has been found safe in Memphis, Tennessee, according to Tennessee and Florida authorities.
The apparent abduction of the little girl, Rebecca Lewis, prompted a search stretching across several states in the Southeast. An Amber Alert for Rebecca covered Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky.
Authorities were tracking surveillance images showing the girl with a 31-year-old man whose current legal name is West Wild Hogs. The Polk County, Florida, Sheriff's Office said Hogs was formerly named Matthew Clark Pybus.
Hogs is in custody as of this afternoon, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said. Rebecca's family said Hogs is a lifelong friend of the family. He was staying with the family when Rebecca went missing.
Rebecca was found at a hospital, where a hospital employee recognized her and the suspect from the Amber Alert, Karen Rudolph of the Memphis Police Department told ABC News this afternoon. The employee contacted security, which then contacted Memphis police.
The suspect was allegedly trying to leave the parking garage when Memphis police stopped him in the parking lot, Rudolph said. He was taken into custody without incident.
Rebecca's mother, Melissa Schell, told ABC News today that the 48-plus hours her daughter was missing "felt like weeks, months, years."
She called it a "horrible experience for any mother, father, grandmother ... to go through."
She said the family would "break down, we cry, we hold each other ... We try to keep going."
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd told reporters this morning that the girl was in immediate danger and he urged Hogs to let her go.
"Don't you hurt that baby," he said. "Turn her over to responsible citizens."
Hogs does not have a cellphone, Judd said, so law enforcement officers were struggling to track him in real time. He is a former truck driver who is familiar with interstate highways. Judd added that Hogs is believed to have bipolar disorder and depression but does not have a criminal history.
While the search was underway, the sheriff's office posted this video of the two at a Florida McDonald's Saturday:
On Saturday night, the two were seen at a gas station in Forsyth, Georgia, about 60 miles southeast of Atlanta, the sheriff's office said on its Facebook page, saying at the time "Rebecca was in good health."
On Sunday night, the Bureau of Investigation in Tennessee said there was a "credible, possible sighting" of the two near Cove Lake State Park in Campbell County, near the border of Kentucky, in eastern Tennessee.
Judd said Hogs had then driven from the Kentucky state line back down to Nashville, where he was spotted at 2:30 this morning.
ABC News' Amanda Maile contributed to this report.
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