WATERFORD (WWJ) - A 13-year-old girl with multiple mental health conditions who has been missing for several days since taking off from her Waterford home over the weekend has been found safe.
In an update Tuesday evening, Waterford police officials said Johannah "Jax" Woody had been found safe. It was not immediately clear where she was found or where she had been.
Jill Sanders told WWJ's Terri Lee Chandler Tuesday morning her daughter went missing in the early morning hours of Sunday, Jan. 14.
"My biggest fear right now is that she ended up in the hands of somebody with obviously cruel intentions and my family were all just stick to our stomachs," Sanders said Tuesday morning.
On Tuesday night Sanders confirmed her daughter had been found in a Facebook post, saying "SHE HAS BEEN FOUND!"
According to Sanders, her daughter is living with ADHD, anxiety, PTSD and has high functioning Autism spectrum disorder. All of the teen's medications were left at home.
Sanders said she and her daughter's father are divorced. Woody was with her father and his fiancé at their Waterford home near Hatchery and Dixie over the weekend when she took off.
"Her dad [has] some pretty rough hours, he has to be to work around two in the morning and so he had left for work and his fiancé was still sleeping in their bedroom and we do believe that she waited for him to leave for work and then was picked up," Sanders added.
According to Sanders, they discovered Woody wasn't in her room Sunday morning and found clothing she was wearing the night before on the floor. Both the teen's jacket and her boots had been left behind.
"We did see footprints in the snow in an area in between his house and the neighbor's where generally nobody usually walks, especially when there's that much snow," the girl's mother told Chandler. "Then there is tire tracks, so we do believe she was picked up by somebody in the middle of the night."
The family immediately filed a missing person's report with the Waterford Police Department, but more than 55 hours later, Sanders said the family was growing frustrated with the lack of help from police.
"How do you go to bed at night knowing that the Waterford Police aren't even out there?" She asked. "They're not doing anything. My sister and I went door to door, trying to ask people if we can look at their Ring cameras... we got one small lead of a possible sighting which would have been over 35 hours ago and nothing's come of it yet."
While this isn't the first time Woody has left her home, her mother said this time "feels a lot different." Sanders said the two had gotten into an argument the last time and Woody was found still in the neighborhood 45 minutes after she left.
According to her mother, Woody has struggled with her mental health for the past couple of years and has been on medication, as well as having undergone residential treatment stays for ADHD, anxiety, PTSD and depression. She is also living with high functioning ASD.
"There was just a lot of things that happened in her life... it's been really hard," Sanders added.
Sanders had said Tuesday morning she thought her daughter may have been persuaded to leave and could now be in the wrong hands.
"'Are you still in Michigan?'" Sanders said. "That's my biggest fear, especially with Michigan being a very high state for human trafficking. Obviously, that is a major concern of ours, especially because kids these days and I've seen it firsthand...it's a huge fear of mine that these kids get, you know, they're so naïve."
Sanders had been asking local residents for help in locating Woody and to not hesitate to reach out to police with any information.
"I just want her to know that you have so many people that love you and you have so many people that are looking for you," Sanders said when asked if she had a message for her daughter. "The love and support from our community. Everybody just wants you to be safe. We all want you to come home and we all love you so much."