What Happened to Michelle McMullen?

Family thinks woman was abducted; police have a warrant for her arrest.

ByABC News
October 10, 2008, 2:00 PM

Oct. 10, 2008— -- The father of a missing college student said his daughter would have never run away and left her son, but police in Pennsylvania consider her a wanted person and have issued a warrant for her arrest.

Michelle McMullen, a 27-year-old student from Harrisburg, Pa., has been missing since Sept. 28, when she left her hometown to return to Grambling State University in Louisiana.

Police in Hagerstown, Md., found McMullen's 2002 Honda Accord on Wednesday with her cell phone, wallet and identification inside, but say there's no indication that her disappearance involves foul play.

Her father, Michael McMullen, is convinced that his daughter was abducted and said he is frustrated and angry that police and the media are focusing on a warrant for his daughter's arrest out of Susquehanna Township, Pa.

Michelle McMullen faces charges of theft by unlawful taking, theft by deception and two counts of forgery in connection with the disappearance of $2,000 from a church where she worked as an administrator for two years. The money was reported missing after an audit by the Progress Emmanuel Presbyterian Church.

"We're firmly believing one thing has absolutely nothing to do with another," Michael McMullen told ABCNews.com today.

But Susquehanna Township Police Capt. Richard Pastucka said Michelle McMullen's listing on a national crime database was changed from missing person to wanted person yesterday.

Michael McMullen said that his family is a close-knit one and that if his daughter needed $2,000 she could have gotten it from her parents.

"This girl is not going to walk away from life for $2,000," he said.

Michelle, he said, was working toward a better life for herself and her beloved son.

After completing two years of online college courses she moved to Grambling, La., to complete her business degree with two years of required on-campus classes at Grambling State.

Her father said that being a full-time student and working full-time at a local McDonald's made it difficult to arrange proper child care for 6-year-old son Jayden, whose father lives in Pennsylvania.