KARISSA LANDUYT - 17 yo - South Amherst (btwn Sandusky and Cleveland) OH

South Amherst OH ---- A missing 17-year-old South Amherst
girl who left the Turning Point Shelter in Elyria on July 1 was found in
Pella, Iowa, according to Lorain County Sheriff’s Sgt. Donald Barker.


Karissa
Landuyt was reported as a runaway after she left the shelter so she
would be entered into a national database of missing children, according
to Turning Point Deputy Administrator Dave Lucy. Landuyt’s mother,
Marce Andrade, said it was the database that led Pella police to
identify Landuyt.

Andrade said Pella police were asking several
juveniles if they had seen two other juveniles missing from the Pella
area. Landuyt was one of the juveniles who spoke with an officer. When
the officer returned to his cruiser to look at the database, Landuyt’s
picture popped up.

“I guess she just felt invincible in another
state,” Andrade said.

Landuyt was staying with friends in Lorain
County after leaving Turning Point and Andrade was worried she would
make her way to Pella, where her father lives.

“She was in the
area for quite a bit,” Andrade said. “There were many tips she had been
seen in Lorain and some in Elyria.”

As any worried parent would,
Andrade canvassed the area hanging fliers with Landuyt’s picture on them
and reported the story to local media outlets. She believes Landuyt
learned of the search effort and left the state. Andrade said one of
Landuyt’s friends purchased a bus ticket under their name for her. She
said the teen was staying with friends in Pella and that her father had
no idea she was in the area.

Landuyt is being held in the Central
Iowa Juvenile Detention Center in Eldora, Iowa, and Andrade said her
daughter will return to Ohio once her paperwork is processed. Whether
she will be sent to the Lorain County Detention Home is uncertain,
Andrade said.