A 16-year-old Pennsylvania girl who was missing for about two weeks was found in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, with the 45-year-old father of a friend. Authorities said Amy Yu has been returned home while the man, Kevin Esterly, was arrested, according to the Associated Press.
Police in Allentown, Pennsylvania, said Amy willingly ran away with Esterly and that she was "unharmed and in good health," according to CNN.
"For two weeks, I've had trouble sleeping and eating," Mui Luu, Amy's mother, told The Allentown Morning Call. "I'm very happy."
I've learned missing Pennsylvania teen Amy Yu was just located in Mexico. U.S. Marshals have 46-year-old Kevin Esterly in custody and both will soon be flown to South Florida. Police say Esterly signed the 16-year-old out of school earlier this month and they disappeared. @wsvn pic.twitter.com/7cD642t520
— Brian Entin (@BrianEntin) March 17, 2018
Luu said the family knew Esterly from church and that he had signed Yu out of school on numerous occasions before the pair went missing, according to CNN. Police said a relationship of some sort had been going on between the two for at least a year.
Yu's mother told CNN that upon reviewing hundreds of text messages obtained by authorities, it appeared that the 16-year-old talked with Esterly like he was a boyfriend.
In a February incident, Luu called police and asked that Esterly and his family stay away from their home. Amy's brother, John Yu, told CNN that his mother, her friend and the family's neighbors met and "were yelling about they think that Amy and Kevin are sleeping together and doing stupid stuff."
Amy was reported as a runaway on March 5 after she didn't come home from school. "They know or planned to do this," John Yu told CNN. "I think it was both of their ideas, because Amy is not that stupid."
The Morning Call reported Monday that amid allegations of a secret relationship with the teenage girl, Esterly has agreed to extradition back to Pennsylvania from Miami. An attorney for his wife said she has denied calls from her husband and plans to file for divorce.
