DTel: Runaway American girl is traced to Loch Ness

Runaway American girl is traced to Loch Ness
By Stewart Payne

Daily Telegraph
(Filed: 24/09/2004)


An American teenager who ran away to Britain using her mother's credit
card was found safe and well yesterday after giving police the slip
for four days.

Jing Wen Chen, 15, left her home in Missouri after a family row over
her studies and late-night use of the internet.


Photo:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/grap...24/nchen24.jpg
Caption:*
Jing boards an aircraft to fly to meet her mother


Police thought that she might be in Oxford, because of her desire to
go to university there, but in fact she had decided to visit Loch
Ness.

Officers discovered she was using a computer to contact school friends
in America. A woman police constable posted her an e-mail, urging her
to give herself up and telling her how worried her parents were.

They still had no idea where she was but, just minutes before her
mother Sharon attended a press conference yesterday lunchtime to
appeal for her daughter to come forward, Jing walked into a police
station in Inverness.

Her delighted mother said that although she was cross at her
daughter's behaviour, all she wanted to do was "smother her in hugs
and kisses". She said she would probably take Jing to visit Oxford
before returning home.

Jing's transatlantic adventure started on Sunday when she left home in
Rolla, Missouri, catching first a bus to St Louis and then flying to
Philadelphia. She then boarded a flight for Gatwick, from where she
took a train to London.

Alerted by the American authorities, Sussex Police started to look for
her and discovered that she had spent Monday night in a London hotel.
But from there, the trail went cold.

Her 40-year-old mother flew to Britain on Wednesday as police
expressed fears for the teenager's safety, describing her as a
vulnerable girl who could have fallen into the wrong company.

In fact Jing had stopped using her mother's credit card, knowing that
transactions would give away her whereabouts, and used some of the
$500 (£280) cash she had with her to catch a train to go sight-seeing
in Scotland.

She booked into the four-star Columba Hotel, Inverness, where she used
an internet facility to contact a schoolfriend in America. When police
were told she might be online, a Sussex Police family liaison officer
sent her an e-mail. In the resulting correspondence she was persuaded
to give herself up. Her mother said: "I am so very relieved and happy
that she is safe."

She said that she and her husband, Prof Genda Chen, had cross words
with Jing because they thought that she was neglecting her studies and
staying on the internet too long.

"She is a very smart girl, but I think she was feeling pressured. She
has always dreamt of going to Harvard or Yale and becoming an exchange
student at Oxford University.

"She is an all-American independent teenager and has always been
interested in English culture, the language and the whole place which
is why we think she came here. Being in England was one of her
dreams."

Det Insp Bill Warner, who led the hunt for Jing, and expressed
surprise at her ingenuity, said: "We had been trying to e-mail her.
When she replied our family liaison officer, WPc Wendy Dowman, managed
to convince her to telephone us. It was then that we realised that she
was in a hotel at Loch Ness."

A spokesman for the hotel said: "We confirm that this girl stayed at
the hotel.

"There was nothing to suggest there was anything untoward with the
reservation. She stayed two nights."

Officers from the Northern Constabulary took Jing to Inverness airport
where she was met by Sussex officers and accompanied back to Gatwick,
and a reunion with her mother.

On 23 Sep 2004 20:53:22 -0700, (Sufaud) wrote:

Runaway American girl is traced to Loch Ness
By Stewart Payne

[Story snipped]

How did an unaccompanied 15-year-old girl manage to get through
British immigration?
-----------
Barbara Vaughan
My email address is my first initial followed by my surname at libero dot it
I answer travel questions only in the newsgroup

On 23 Sep 2004 20:53:22 -0700, (Sufaud) wrote:

Runaway American girl is traced to Loch Ness
By Stewart Payne

[Story snipped]

How did an unaccompanied 15-year-old girl manage to get through
British immigration?
-----------
Barbara Vaughan
My email address is my first initial followed by my surname at libero dot it
I answer travel questions only in the newsgroup

"B Vaughan" wrote in message
...
On 23 Sep 2004 20:53:22 -0700, (Sufaud) wrote:

Runaway American girl is traced to Loch Ness
By Stewart Payne

[Story snipped]

How did an unaccompanied 15-year-old girl manage to get through
British immigration?

Probably by saying someone was waiting outside for her.

"B Vaughan" wrote in message
...
On 23 Sep 2004 20:53:22 -0700, (Sufaud) wrote:

Runaway American girl is traced to Loch Ness
By Stewart Payne

[Story snipped]

How did an unaccompanied 15-year-old girl manage to get through
British immigration?

Probably by saying someone was waiting outside for her.