Two missing 16-year-old girls found safe in woods

Girls got lost in Kissimmee

KISSIMMEE, Fla. – Two teenage girls reported missing have been located in the woods near the temple they were attending Saturday.

All-terrain vehicles, K-9s, a helicopter and deputies were deployed to search cars at the Caribe Resort in the hunt for the two 16-year-old girls who went missing late Saturday afternoon.


"It was very disturbing. They are very good girls, very innocent girls," said Rabbi Josef Konikov, director of the Chabad Community Center.

Authorities said Rivka Moshe and Brocha Katz were visiting Orlando from Miami on a high school religious retreat when they had a break and somehow ended up in the woods.

"We knew there was a wooded area close to the resort and the presumption was, they may have gone into the wooded area and just not able to get out," said Twis Lizasuain, of the Osceola County Sheriff's Office.

The Sheriff's Office was right. Deputies and their chopper searched throughout the night and eventually found the girls Saturday morning. Deputies suited up in rain boots and chainsaws to cut through thick brush to get them. Hours later, deputies finally rescued the girls and draped them with towels as they got into an ambulance.

"Standing next to the parents, watching the parents smile and cry. Very, very emotionally moved," Konikov said.

Authorities said the girls were a little dehydrated but otherwise OK.

 


About the Authors:

Loren Korn is a native Texan who joined the News 6 team as a reporter in May 2014. She was born and raised in Houston and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in Journalism.

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