Amber Alert

AMBER Alert discontinued for Hurst teenager

The teenage girl was last seen Sunday evening and returned home Saturday morning police say

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An AMBER Alert issued for a missing 16-year-old girl from Hurst has been discontinued.

Hurst Police said the girl returned home unharmed and her disappearance appeared to be voluntary.

Earlier in the week NBC 5 spoke with the missing girls parents about the situation.

"I just want her home, I just want to know where she's at and I want her to keep getting the help she needs," said Catrina Rowbotham, the girl's mother.

She and her husband, Andre, spent the last several days on the phone and printing flyers as friends, family, colleagues and law enforcement looked for their daughter.

"It wasn't real until the AMBER Alert came out. I mean, it was real, but the AMBER Alert hit, and I was like, 'My baby is a missing child,'" cried Rowbotham.

On Tuesday an AMBER Alert officially went out for their daughter.

"I just want my kid, I don't know where she's at, I'm worried for her because of the mental illness and her propensity to find trouble and not know she's in trouble," said Rowbotham.

She said within the last year the 16-year-old was diagnosed with conduct disorder, borderline personality disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and depression.

The family said on Sunday the daughter was agitated regarding some chores. They also believe she was upset regarding planned treatment for her mental health.

"Her anxiety was high. She knows that she was scheduled to go to a long-term hospital facility for treatment and so that was probably tipping her over," explained Andre.

Her father said he took her for a walk to help his daughter calm down. Andre said they walked their normal route through the neighborhood when she insisted on going a different way.

"We had made it basically halfway through the walk and she just got really defiant. She wasn't going to go the way I wanted to head back, the shorter way. She was going to take the long way, and so I figured I'll head back, get my phone, and then catch her at the top of the hill. And Katrina knew that I was having a hard time with her, and she picked me up in the car," explained Andre. "And by the time we got to the top of the hill where she should have been, she wasn't there."

He said they searched for hours in the neighborhood, but think she went through a local park where someone said they saw her.

The AMBER Alert was born in 1996 when local media teamed up with local police to develop an early warning system to find abducted children following the abduction and brutal murder of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, of Arlington.

TEXAS STATEWIDE ALERT PROGRAMS

Eight kinds of alerts can be issued for missing or endangered people in Texas. Below are links to articles with more information about each type of alert.

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