Missing Texas 15-year-old has been found safe, mom says
Heaven Cox, 15, had been missing since Sunday, authorities said.
— -- A missing Texas teenager has been found safe, her mother told ABC News Thursday evening.
Heaven Ray Cox, 15, had been missing since Sunday, and "left a note saying she may be headed to California," according to the Orange County Sheriff's Office. Her mother, Tammy Cox, wrote on Facebook Thursday evening that she had been located.
The Orange County Sheriff's Office in Texas said that investigators were able to locate Heaven unharmed at a residence in Louisiana "after following several leads and speaking with numerous individuals."
Authorities said the home where Heaven was found belonged to a relative of someone Heaven knew. The investigation will continue, and the sheriff's office has not ruled out any pending criminal charges, it said.
Heaven was questioned by authorities the Orange County Sheriff's Office before she returned home to her family this evening.
Before Heaven had been found, Cox said she may have been with an older man she met on social media. It is unclear whether she was with anyone when she was found.
The note did not say how the teen was getting there or who she would be with, according to the sheriff's office. But Cox told ABC News that she learned from a peer of her daughter's that the missing teen was talking to an older man through social media and was leaving to go to California with him.
Cox told ABC News earlier she had no idea who this alleged older man might be, adding that she searched her daughter's room but found no clues other than the note, which was shared with police.
"Heaven has several social media profiles and investigators want to speak to anyone that has had direct communication with her by cell phone or through any of her social media applications," the sheriff's office said in a news release Wednesday.
Cox also said earlier her daughter takes medication for bipolar disorder, adding that she did not believe her daughter had taken her medication with her.
"She could be anywhere," Cox said earlier this week. "She took her passport."
"I'm scared for her," she added. "We're not mad, we're not upset with her, we just want to get her home so she's safe."