First, from yesterday’s Miami Herald:
An Orlando judge on Monday ordered the 17-year-old woman into the custody of the Department of Children and Families until another hearing next week.
The teenager, who is not a U.S. citizen, says she fears her family would hurt her, kill her or send her back to her native Sri Lanka. Her parents live in Franklin County, Ohio.
The teenager took a bus from Ohio to Orlando. She has been staying with a family she met through a Christian prayer group on Facebook.
And now from this morning’s Examiner:
Rifqa claims her father repeatedly threatened to kill her for abandoning her Muslim upbringing, so the teen fled to Florida to stay with Pastors Blake and Beverly Lorenz of Global Revolution Church in Orlando, whom she had met on Facebook. The Lorenz’s sought the advice of attorneys and alerted authorities that the missing girl was in Florida.
The girl’s father, Mohamed Bary, has denied the allegations and traveled to Florida to bring his daughter home. However, the Florida DCF wants to be sure the girl is safe before sending her back to Ohio, who likely has jurisdiction in the case.
WFTV in Orlando, FL reports that DCF attorney Karelene Cole-Palmer has said, “There are too many conflicting things that are going on with this child and it needs to be investigated thoroughly.”
But for now, the girl will remain in the custody of the Florida Department of Children and Families until her next hearing on August 21.
PS: I’m a slow dial-up connection. Is that an objectionable video?