SPRING, Texas – Two Klein Independent School District students have been found safe, after the pair went missing after school Monday afternoon.
According to a Klein ISD spokesperson, Alyssa Schaefer’s uncle found the teens, unharmed, in the woods near the Stripes gas station at FM 2920 and Meadow Hill Drive Tuesday evening.
Schaefer tells Channel 2 she and the other teen are friends and they slept in the woods Monday night.
“I was happy to see people,” Schaefer said. “My heart is filled with love again, just with how many people were searching for me and everything.”
The 15-year-old said the two decided to break away due to stress at school. Schaefer is currently enrolled in three AP classes.
Her mother, Victoria Schaefer, said she forgives her daughter for running away, but she will be grounded.
PHOTOS: Alyssa Schaefer missing Klein ISD student
According to officials, the search for the two teens began after Schaefer didn’t return home from Klein Collins High School on Monday.
She was last seen leaving campus with a 16-year-old boy who is also a student at the school, officials said.
Mother reunites with her daughter, Alyssa Schaefer @KPRC2 pic.twitter.com/2GNWAePHKf
— Samantha Ptashkin (@SamPtashkin) October 18, 2016
Klein ISD police Chief David Kimberly said Schaefer’s mother reported that her daughter’s phone was turned off until about 7:50 a.m. Tuesday. The phone looked like it had been at use at the Stripes Gas Station near FM 2920 and Meadow Hill Drive.
Officers set up a command post at the gas station and spent hours using ATVs, helicopters and K-9s to search the area.
The case generated a lot of interest across the Spring community, after Alyssa’s mother, Victoria Schaefer, posted a message on Facebook Monday night, pleading for help to find her daughter.
Nicole Morris doesn’t know the teens, but saw the post on Facebook and started driving around neighborhoods Tuesday to try to locate the teens. “I just feel like there is not enough people helping out,” Morris said.
Other people, also complete strangers to the family, started passing out missing person fliers.