Teen-ager found in PA; two arrested in case

By Wanda Combs
Editor

A 15-year-old who had been missing from her home in Floyd since Monday night, June 14, was found in Pennsylvania last Thursday.
A man and woman were arraigned that day and jailed on $100,000 bail in the Armstrong County Jail in Kittanning, PA, in connection with the case. Edward Lee Bracken and Regina Lynn Powell, both of 20 Lindenwood Drive in Kittanning, face charges of concealment of whereabouts of child and unlawful contact with a minor in connection with the case.
In addition to those charges, the Floyd County Sheriff’s Office, which is investigating the case locally, said there will be state or federal charges placed here.
According to court documents, state police and a caseworker from Children, Youth and Family Services found the Floyd teen with Bracken and Powell at a residence at 20 Lindenwood Drive. In the documents, Bracken said “they had just got in late last night from Virginia.”
The documents went on to include the teen’s statements. The teen told police she had met the defendant online several months ago, and last week she had gotten a call from him saying he was in town. She said he called her again and told her she should jump out her bedroom window and run down the driveway to them and if she didn’t bad things would happen to her. She said when she approached the car, he displayed a yellow pocket knife and told her to get in the car. She said she was driven to a campsite in Rocky Knob Park, a few miles from her home on the Parkway, before being driven to Pennsylvania the next day.
Powell and Bracken both told police they knew the teenager was 15 years old and that they knew her mother did not know where she was, according to court documents. They also stated the girl said she did not want to go home.
The last time the teen’s family had seen her on Monday night she had been talking on a cell phone outside her home.
Family and friends had posted fliers around the county in an effort to find her. A search dog was brought to the teen’s home. The dog followed the girl’s scent down the driveway, but lost it at the edge of the driveway.