Melissa Kennedy, Missing For Two Weeks, Mysteriously Surfaces

[Southern Crane]

Since I can't reply to SPC's Announcement, I figured this was the best place to post this update....


College student missing for weeks surfaces on Long Island
Newsday
March 08, 2004
By Joshua Robin

Her Brooklyn family is relieved, yet mystery surrounds where she's been since last being seen upstate Feb . 20

Two anxious weeks after reporting their daughter missing, a Brooklyn family was reunited with her early yesterday when she mysteriously surfaced in Southampton.

Detectives are trying to determine why Melissa Kennedy (photo), 21, ended up in Suffolk County. A senior at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, Kennedy was last seen Feb. 20 on a Metro-North train headed from Poughkeepsie to the city for a routine weekend home.

At 11:57 p.m. Saturday night, Southampton Town police reported receiving a phone call from a woman claiming to be Melissa Kennedy, calling from Hudson Street in Hampton Bays. The caller said she had seen a missing-person report about herself, said Officer Stephen Arrasate, an officer on duty yesterday.

"She just came forward to us and wanted to turn herself in," Arrasate said. After confirming Kennedy's identity, Southampton cops contacted authorities in Poughkeepsie, who led the investigation. They contacted Kennedy's parents in Bay Ridge sometime after midnight. The parents met her in a tearful embrace at the Southampton police station before dawn.

Interviewed yesterday morning outside his home while his daughter slept, George Kennedy said he still didn't know what happened. The family is taking police's advice to refrain from pressing her to reveal her whereabouts over the past two weeks, he said.

"We're supposed to just let her be," said George Kennedy, a school teacher at Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan.

NYPD sources said it appeared Melissa Kennedy suffered from psychological problems that might have prompted her to run away. The department officially directed calls to Poughkeepsie police, who said a statement will be released later this week.

George Kennedy said Melissa appeared fine physically, and he would not comment on whether he expected she would seek medical treatment.

"We're not quite sure exactly what happened," he said.

Kennedy and his wife, Janet, a Brooklyn school teacher, spent the last two weeks searching for their daughter, who is one of four children. By George Kennedy's account, they printed thousands of posters, raised nearly $7,000 for a reward and contacted media outlets in the region to drum up interest in her disappearance. He also traced her route along the Metro-North Harlem line, asking people if they saw her and putting up posters.

Meanwhile, they tried to shelve creeping doubts that Melissa would not be found alive.

"It could have gone the other way so easily," George Kennedy said yesterday.

He said the family had no immediate celebration plans, outside of an egg breakfast that Janet Kennedy was preparing. George Kennedy said he hadn't taught in two weeks and needed to catch up with school work. He said he is mulling helping to find other missing persons, using the experience he gained searching for his daughter.

But that would come later.

"We just want everything to try and to come back to normal," George Kennedy said, flyers and yellow ribbons still lining his block. "Right now, my mind is a mess. I'm just full of emotion."


It's good that she's safe at home....

[CrazyLilAngel]

Well, I'm definitely relieved that she's alive and well, but I'm suspicious about why she went "missing" for so long without trying to contact her family. I mean, after all, if she was trying to escape from them, she wouldn't turn herself in, right?

And if that isn't the case, why'd she go missing for so long? Unless she was threatened against revealing the reason...

But either way, I'm definitely glad she's home safe.

[cherrie]

yeah, good thing she's home.

[spcnet]

Thank you for posting the article and to everyone who expressed concern to me over PM. I am just very, very happy for the family!

[belki]

I just hope that she's okay not only physically but also psychologically. It's a good thing all the anxiousness is gone.

[junny]

Am glad that Melissa is back with her family. Hope she's all right.

[eeyore]

I'm glad too she's home.

Hopefully her and her family be better now.

[Dagger Lee]

I'm really happy that Melissa is back with her family now.

[Spirit of Honour]

I'm glad she is safe and back with her family.

[cherrie]

im just curious spcnet, what exactly happened to her in this 2 weeks? if it's okay to let us know

[James Ko]

Originally posted by cherrie
im just curious spcnet, what exactly happened to her in this 2 weeks? if it's okay to let us know

I think that is probably going to private... but then I hope no story book or tv series comes out based on this event.

It is good that the girl is safe and sound. Hopefully those who are affected with this can put this behind them and spend the rest of their lives living to the fullest.

[flyingfox2002]

I've heard some rumors about what happened. The important thing however is that she's fine. She goes to college near my home though I don't remember having seen her face on the street before. I was hoping for the best case scenario, which luckily occurred.

[cherrie]

ok