Missing Child Found At Friend's House

UPDATE 5:20 p.m.: The story ended as suddenly as it began, and as happily as anyone could have imagined.

Eight-year-old Jordan Arends was found just before 5 p.m., nearly five hours after she was reported missing, at a friend's house several miles away from the camp. She was safe and unharmed.

Scores of searchers—from law enforcement to Salvation Army workers—spent Tuesday afternoon in Orono, combing the marshy, rugged Wolsfeld Woods, which surrounds Trinity Lutheran Church and its vacation bible school, searching for Arends.

Searchers had apparently expected a long search—porta-potties had been trucked to the site Tuesday afternoon—but an Orono Police official announced just before 5 p.m. that Arend had been found. Officials believe the girl walked on her own to the friend's house, but it's unclear when the girl left the camp or how her eventual whereabouts became known. The official said Arends was being reunited with her parents.

The church operates the camp on property at County Road 6 and Brown Road. Arends, who just completed the second grade at Schumann Elementary School, was reportedly part of a group of eight children at the camp. She couldn't be accounted for at noon Tuesday, when children wrapping up the morning camp session were scheduled to be picked up by parents and others. Arend's nanny had dropped Arend off at the camp just before 9 a.m. Tuesday, and the girl was last seen near the camp's entrance.

Search teams used helicopters, all-terrain vehicles and dogs to form a chain that slowly moved Wolsfeld Woods.

Arend's teacher at Schumann, Stephanie Johnson, said Arend likes to keep close to her friends and that it's "very out of character" for the girl to wander away from her group.

"Of all the kids I’ve taught in 20 years, she’s one of the most responsible," Johnson said.