JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Alyssa Umbaugh, a teenager from Clay County who had been missing since December, has been reunited with her family.
The Clay County Sheriff’s Office confirmed her safe return through a social media post early Sunday.
The search for Alyssa garnered widespread attention and support from the community.
RELATED: Missing Clay County teen found safe and reunited with family
Steven Femenella is the founder of Texas Kid Search (TKS), a group with a mission to help families of missing children.
“We want to be one of the organizations that actually does something,” he said.
Femenella is now based in Florida and joined the search just over a week ago. He said he got a call and worked with the family and several groups across the region to help.
Hundreds of volunteers gathered to hand out flyers and help keep Alyssa’s face fresh in people’s minds.
“Our mission was to bring the community together,” Femenella said. “Get a group of volunteers to go to various areas throughout the northeast Florida area.”
And on Sunday all those weeks of working and waiting ended in relief.
“Alyssa Umbaugh has been safely reunited with family members,” according to the Clay County Sheriff’s Office.
Femenella said he got the call with the news and broke down.
He said he didn’t know if the search party’s work had anything to do with it but added that someone saw her face and recognized her before calling the police.
Either way, Femenella said the effort from this community was outstanding. He said so many of them saw Alyssa’s story and took it personally.
“It could’ve been my child,“ he said.
And to the community that tried to assist in bringing Alyssa back home, Femenella said “Thank you, I can’t say it enough.”
While Alyssa’s safe return marks a positive conclusion to the search, the investigation remains active.
Authorities said that “anyone who may have encouraged her to run away, assisted in hiding her, or kept her whereabouts unknown to law enforcement will be held accountable.”