Brittany Mae Smith Will Be Reunited With Family Tonight
Dec. 13, 2010 — -- Brittany Mae Smith, the 12-year-old girl who was missing for more than a week, is on her way back to Virginia to be reunited with her family.
Smith is being accompanied by two Roanoke County detectives and will be reunited with her family at an undisclosed location tonight, Roanoke County Public Information Officer Teresa Hamilton Hall told ABC affliliate WSET.
The family of Brittany is relieved that she is safe after being allegedly abducted by 32-year-old Jeffrey Scott Easley, the suspect in the murder of Brittany's mother.
Brittany's grandmother, Elizabeth Dyer, said that she is eager to hold her granddaughter. Dyer said the family has been overwhelmed by the support and effort to help find Brittany.
"Thanks everybody, bless each of you and if I could hug and kiss each one of you, I would," Dyer told WSET.
Investigators from Roanoke, Va. traveled over the weekend to San Francisco where Smith and Easley were found.
A Safeway supermarket employee spotted the two and called police. Smith and Easley were reportedly panhandling near the grocery store. Police quickly took the pair into custody without resistance.
The last time they were last spotted before beign taken into custody was Dec. 3 at a Walmart in Salem, Va., buying camping equipment. The tent they had purchased together was found nearby after their arrests.
The 2005 silver Dodge Neon that belonged to Brittany's murdered mother was located near San Francisco International Airport.
Easley is now officially a suspect in the murder of Brittany's mother, 41-year-old Tina Smith. When Tina Smith failed to show up for work Dec. 6, police went to the home and found her body. They then learned that Brittany had disappeared.
"Now that she's been found, we will be headed back to Roanoke soon," Detective John McPhail said Sunday. "The Roanoke police department's focus has shifted to the murder investigation."
