The Lancaster County teenager that was reported missing Monday afternoon, was found safe after hours of searching. Police say she is doing okay. After police found her, she was taken to an area hospital, treated and released.
The teen didn't get off the bus at her bus stop, where her mother was waiting. Her mother learned she had been absent from school, and immediately called police.
Adrian Ruth Battick is a 9th grader at Hempfield High School. Battick's mother told police she saw her at their home shortly before 7 a.m. on Monday. She said her usual routine was to go out front at the intersection of Columbia Avenue and Lincoln West Drive to wait for the bus.
Some school districts immediately notify a parent or legal guardian when a student fails to show up. That didn't happen in this case. We reached out to the Hempfield Area School District, but it did not respond to a request for information on its policies.
A state department of education spokesman says those policies are up to each individual school district.
Battick was found 15 hours later sitting along route 230 in Mount Joy Township near Elizabethtown. She apparently spent most of the day outside in a winter storm with snow, sleet, freezing rain and temperatures in the low 30's.
Investigators are not saying what she did and where she went. But they are looking into reports that she left because of family issues.
