FORT WHITE, Fla. — A 10-year-old Columbia County girl was found safe Saturday after running away from her home Friday morning.
Crews searched for Katelynn Mosher, 10, for more than 12 hours. Katelynn was found by her family about 1 mile from her Fort White home on Saturday morning.
They were led there by police K-9s that had picked up her scent. She is currently being cared for by the Department of Children and Families.
Cpl. Murray Smith said this is not the first time Katelynn has run away.
“She does this for a reason, something is wrong,” Smith said.
Deputies said Katelynn has been living with her adopted mother, her stepfather and two siblings.
They said she ran away around 3 a.m. Friday, but fearing DCF would take her out of the home, deputies said the family didn't report her missing until 5 p.m.
“The investigators will be looking at all that. I don't know that 14 hours is acceptable for me as a father and a grandfather,” Smith said.
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Katelynn’s biological mother, Sasha Butterfield, does not have custody of Katelynn, but that didn’t stop her from finding her daughter.
“We could hear her faint, off in the woods. We all stopped -- we all got flashlights -- we all jumped off and she came running out to us,” Butterfield said.
Deputies say Katelynn packed some snacks and ran away with no shoes, wearing a white shirt and green shorts.
“We found green shorts in the dumpster earlier. You don't even know what that was like,” Butterfield said. “We thought they were hers and something happened to her; it was unbelievable.”
Smith said no charges have been filed against Katelynn's stepparents at this time, but they will investigate it further.
“There's always an underlying problem and we hope to get to the bottom of that,” Smith said.
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Smith said he was not aware of Mosher having any medical conditions, but said she runs from those trying to catch her.
CCSO detectives, Department of Corrections K-9s, Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission officers, Columbia County Fire Rescue and an air unit from Alachua County Sheriff’s Office assisted in the search.