Group Home Girls Make a Barefoot Run for It

June 24, 2008— -- Three bipolar teen girls who live in a rural North Carolina group home for adolescents with mental and behavioral problems remained missing today, two days after they eluded a counselor Sunday night by wading barefoot across a shallow river.

Shikeyla Wilfong, 16, Taylor Sandefer, 13, and Brittany Roper, 17, were reported missing to the Boiling Springs, N.C., Police Department at 7:25 p.m. Sunday after leaving during a group outing at a recreational area.

A counselor from the Trinity III group home in Shelby, N.C., told authorities that the three girls were wading in the shallow water at the Broad River Greenway and refused to return to the riverbank when called, Boiling Spring Police Chief Marty Thomas told ABC News.

The girls crossed to the opposite bank and were gone by the time the counselor drove over a bridge to cross to the other side of the river to meet them.

The counselor then had to drive around for a while to find cell phone reception to call 911 and report their disappearance, a factor that increased the lag time before police responded, Thomas said.

An intense, multiagency ground search of the area Sunday night failed to turn up the girls. Authorities did find three sets of footprints heading west that doubled back toward a local bridge to a spot where they could have been picked up.

"There are two different thoughts," Thomas said. "Either they had a really elaborate plan to get away and made some telephone calls and set it up, or someone just happened to pick them up."

The search was suspended Monday, and the focus of the investigation turned to interviewing counselors at the Trinity III group home, as well as possible friends or family members whom the three girls may be trying to meet.

Trinity III is a privately owned facility described on its Web site as a residential program for adolescents suffering from mental disorders. The program promotes family-style living as an element of the treatment.

All three girls live with bipolar disorder, Thomas said, and have had behavioral problems in the past, which are typically treated with daily prescription medication.

Thomas said he is most concerned for the safety of the 13-year-old, Taylor Sandefer. He said the girl came to the group home from a broken family and has had violent manic episodes in the past. She has a severe beesting allergy and is traveling without an EpiPen, which could prevent her from experiencing anaphylactic shock if stung.

"Basically, they couldn't handle her at home," Thomas said.