A Lititz woman who disappeared in 2002 and was declared legally dead in 2010 has been found alive in Florida, according to police.
Brenda Heist, 53, was reported missing by her husband, Lee, on Feb. 8, 2002, and had been last seen that morning dropping off her two children at school, police said. Heist's car was found a few days later with no apparent sign of a struggle.
Investigators said they received a call on Friday evening that Heist had turned herself in at the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office in Key Largo. A Lititz Borough detective interviewed Heist in Florida and learned that she had left town to join a group of homeless people who were hitch hiking to Florida, police said.
In Florida, Heist mostly lived as a homeless person, sleeping under bridges and tents, sometimes in a trailer, and eating food that was thrown out at fast food restaurants, police said. She sometimes worked odd jobs cleaning boats.
When she disappeared, Heist's daughter was 8 and her son was 12. Her son recently graduated from West Chester University and is applying to a police academy in New Jersey. Her daughter is a freshman at Montgomery County Community College.
Local, state and federal authorities spent months investigating Heist's disappearance, interviewing dozens of relatives, friends, neighbors and co-workers. She was entered into several national missing persons databases. She is now being held in protective custody in the Keys.
Police say Heist appears mentally stable and they don't have any evidence that she used drugs. She now plans to go live with her mom in Texas.
The teenage daughter of a woman who secretly left her family 11 years ago says she's angry and doesn't want to have a relationship with her.
Morgan Heist said that she's still trying to sort out why Brenda Heist would have decided to abandon her and her brother in Pennsylvania in 2002 and hitchhike with strangers to Florida.
Morgan Heist is now a 19-year-old freshman at a community college outside Philadelphia. She says she thinks about how she's spent the last decade mourning a woman who was alive.
All grown up: Morgan Heist, pictured with her brother Lee, has said wishes she had never cried for her missing mom who has finally showed up after eleven years
An avid tweeter, Morgan Heist's updates since finding out that her mom is still alive reveal a young woman whose joy has quickly turned to anger.
'I'm praying so hard that this is the answer I have been waiting for for 11 years,' she tweeted after hearing the news.
Her initial joy quickly soured and the next day she wrote: 'This doesn't seem real. I feel like I'm in my own horrible nightmare and can't wake up.'
She also tweeted that she was glad her father was now exonerated of any blame or suspicion about his wife's disappearance.
She wrote: 'Tomorrow will be the day I will hopefully finally get closure in my life. I need the truth more than anything.'
But later that day she tweeted: 'My brother and I don't want contact with her as of now.'
By the next day her tweets about her mom had become more negative: 'You were finally becoming less and less of a memory. Now? You're a horrible nightmare.'
Since then they have continued in a similar vein. 'To think I would EVER want to talk to a woman like you.. I can't believe I wanted to possibly see you. F*** you "mother."
Another read: 'You will never gain my love or respect. You deserve to rot in hell for what you have done to me.'
Her anger continued with this tweet: 'I don't think anyone could understand my pain for the past 11 years. But I am strong. And nothing like Brenda C Heist will tear me down.'
Morgan also revealed to the media that knowing what she knows now, she wishes she never cried over her mom's fate.
Heist’s ex-husband meanwhile has said he is angry but working on forgiveness. He was once considered a suspect in her disappearance.
Many ask why
There are two whys being asked in connection with this story – why did Heist leave in 2002 and why did she turn herself in Key Largo, Fla.
As for why she left, Lititz police said Heist told them that she was in the middle of a divorce and that she was also struggling financially. She said the pressure was just too much and she snapped. That was when she decided to leave town with a group of homeless people that she met at a park.
Police spent years trying to solve the case. After several years, detectives from across Lancaster County even conducted a cold case investigation. They and others do feel some anger.
"I can't believe that she would leave her two children," said former neighbor Arlene Bingeman. "I just can't, as a mother, I just can't believe that."
Lititz Police Detective John Schofield said Heist did express some regret.
"She said she thought of her family and her children every day, and her parents. However, she never acted on that and never made any phone calls – not one," Schoefield said.
As for why Heist decided to turn herself in, police said she told them that she was at the end of her rope and that she was having health problems.
"I think she just has had it and she was tired of running," said Schofield.
