IONIA, Mich. (WZZM) - An Ionia County family is full of relief, and questions, after the teenager came home after disappearing two years ago. Sixteen year old Betty Lou Alsup disappeared in August of 2007, and hadn't been heard from until she showed up again last week.
Alsup is almost 19 years old now and wants to open a new chapter of her life.
When Alsup disappeared, Ionia County Detective Phillip Hesche says, "Her mother had called and reported her as a runaway. It wasn't the first time she had been reported as a runaway."
But this time, Betty wasn't seen in or around her hometown of Saranac for two years. The search was on, with help from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and other national services.
Detective Hesche says the Ionia County Sheriff's Department got plenty of tips, partly because Betty has an identical twin and people may have seen her and thought it was Betty.
Hesche says, "Several homes were checked through out Ionia County, Kent County, as far up as Newaygo, where these tips were coming in that she was seen. And none of them actually ever led to her being found."
While the detective was on the phone talking about a lead, he got word that Betty had literally walked in the door of the Sheriff's Department and was in the lobby.
Detective Hesche says, "It brings some really positive closure. There's been some people with this department working very hard for the last couple of years to find this girl."
Alsup didn't say much about the past two years to investigators or relatives. Hesche says, "She stated that she had been with a couple of friends. She stated that she had simply run away from home. That she was by herself. Stayed with a couple of friends outside of the area here, the immediate area." Although Alsup told investigators she didn't go any farther than Grand Rapids to the west and Lansing to the east.
Now, investigators and her family are just happy to know Betty Lou Alsup is safe.
WZZM 13 talked with Betty's mother who says she is so relieved to know her daughter is safe. She says at times she feared Betty might be dead. But, her mother says relatives still have a lot of unanswered questions for Betty about her whereabouts and why she left.
In your voice
