ROANOKE, Va., Dec. 14 (UPI) -- A missing Virginia girl has been reunited with her family after being found 3,000 miles from home with a man police said abducted her.
Brittany Mae Smith, 12, was rescued by authorities in San Francisco after someone recognized her and Jeffrey Easley, 32, panhandling outside a supermarket, The Roanoke (Va.) Times reported Tuesday.
Her father, Benjamin Smith, called the woman who alerted police "my hero" during a news conference Monday night at Roanoke County police headquarters.
In a phone interview with the Times, Theresa Shanley said there was something about Brittany's stare that made her ask a clerk in the store to call police.
Easley is being held in the San Francisco County Jail where he is under psychiatric observation pending court action on Virginia's request for extradition.
He has been charged in arrest warrants with abduction, attempted credit card fraud and credit card larceny.
Police call him a suspect in the slaying of Brittany Smith's mother, Tina, who was found dead in her Salem, Va., home Dec. 6, the day Brittany was discovered missing.
