Runaway Mom Tiffany Tehan Didn't Think Search Would Go Nationwide

May 3, 2010— -- To him, she was an angel. To her, he was a way out.

But runaway mom Tiffany Tehan and Tre Hutcherson are now back in Ohio dealing with the fallout from their week on the run that triggered a nationwide search.

Tehan, 31, admitted on "Good Morning America" today that she has visited with her daughter Lexie, who is 13-months-old, only once she returned from south Florida last week.

Hutcherson, 42, said he had notified his wife by text message that he was leaving her. His wife has since filed for divorce.

Their sprint from their marriages included pictures of the couple from their time in Florida flashing wide grins while on the beach.

But Hutcherson said he knew they would runaway romance was coming to an end.

Hutcherson said he had been monitoring news of the search from his laptop, keeping the details from Tehan at her request. Then he read that the FBI had joined the manhunt.

"At that point I knew we were on a short time frame before we were going to be found," he told "Good Morning America" the couple's exclusive morning show interview.

"I really didn't think anyone would look that hard for me," Tehan said. "Maybe a little bit, but not nearly what it turned into."

Tehan said she cracked under the pressure "to be perfect."

"In a nutshell I was feeling pretty overwhelmed with life, just the pressures of work and raising a 1-year-old daughter," she said. "I wish that I had handled things completely differently."

Hutcherson said the decision to flee to southern Florida was a "spur of the moment" decision sparked by an off-the-cuff comment.

"I said, 'Sometimes I think about getting on [Interstate] 75 and driving down to Florida and getting away for it all,'" Hutcherson said. "And she said flippantly, 'Don't forget to take me along.'"

The discovery of Tehan's SUV abandoned with a flat tire and they keys still inside panicked her family, but Hutcherson said the purposely left the keys inside as a courtesy to her husband so he'd still be able to use it.

Tehan disappeared while she was supposedly shopping on Saturday, April 17. Tehan and Hutcherson will not face criminal charges, but will pay thousands in restitution to help cover the cost of the search, an attorney for the couple told ABC News last week.

Tehan said she assumed her husband and daughter would be fine without her.

"I would have never ever have left her if I thought she wasn't well cared for," she said. "The only reason I didn't take her is because I didn't want to trigger an Amber Alert."

For his part, her husband David Tehan, has seemed immediately forgiving.

"She may have made some mistakes, but everyone does," he said recently.

Tiffany Tehan Fled Husband, Daughter to Start a New Life

Tehan was never arrested in Miami and, according to police at the time, did not appear to have committed a crime.

"She left voluntarily with this fellow and drove to Miami to -- and these are her words -- start a new life," Miami Beach police Sgt. Wayne Jones said after she was found.

"My clients have agreed to make full restitution for the investigation in whatever amount the prosecutor deemed appropriate," attorney Jon Paul Rion said. "I think that they've always wanted to make this county as whole as possible."

According to family law attorney Michael Kretzmer, it doesn't appear any of Tehan's escapade was illegal.

"You have to say, 'What's the crime?'" Kretzmer told "Good Morning America" last week. "[There's] no question that deception was involved, but I think that's going to be something that law enforcement's going to have a tough time, really, proving there was a crime."

Capt. Scott Anger of Ohio's Xenia Police Division called the incident a "personal, family matter" shortly after Tehan was found.

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