UPDATE: The parents of Sydney teenager Krystal Muhieddine have landed in Melbourne and are on their way to collect their 14-year-old daughter, who was reported missing on Tuesday morning.
“I haven’t hugged her since Tuesday,’’ Krystal’s father, Wally Muhieddine, said as he boarded a flight to Melbourne on Friday afternoon. “I can’t wait to get my arms around her.”
The teenager, from Hunters Hill, was found in a small country town in Victoria about midday on Friday and is safe with police.
Police said Krystal had not contacted them.
“Members of the public came forward with information we were looking into, but that wasn’t how we located her,” a Gladesville police officer said, refusing to give any other details.
The Muhieddines flew from Sydney to Melbourne on Friday afternoon, where police met them at the airport and are now driving them to their daughter.
Mr Muhieddine said police had told him not to disclose his daughter’s location.
“She’s safe, she’s well. She’s pretty frightened and looking forward to seeing us,” he said from the back of a police car. He did not know if Krystal was with the person with whom she ran away.
The teenager was reported missing on Tuesday morning, after Mrs Muhieddine saw her daughter in the passenger seat of a silver hatchback with red P-plates as it sped off from outside the family home about 5.30am.
Earlier on Friday, Mr Muhieddine expressed relief that his daughter had been found.
“We’ve found her. She’s in Melbourne. We’re on our way to the airport now,” he said in Sydney.
“Police tell us she’s safe and she’s with them. We don’t know too much more.”
Police would not say if the driver of the car was with Krystal.
On his way to the airport, Mr Muhieddine said he believed Krystal was “quite a way away” from the nearest airport in Melbourne.
Krystal’s mother, Suzanne Muhieddine, had asked her daughter to call home at an emotional press conference on Thursday.
“Someone was waiting for her,” she said. “She’s never dated anyone. She’s never had a boyfriend. She’s never been anywhere without me dropping her off.”
Mr Muhieddine said on Thursday that they knew Krystal had been communicating with someone online.
