SURGOINSVILLE, Tenn. – An Amber Alert has been canceled after a 14-year-old East Tennessee girl, who was previously reported missing and believed to be with a wanted sex offender, was located in Virginia.
Officials with the U.S. Marshals Office said Tuesday morning that Hayleigh Wilson and 41-year-old Benjamin “Ben” Shook were found overnight.
Both were taken to the Smythe County Sheriff’s Office, located about 40 miles northeast of Bristol.
Officials with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said Wilson left her residence in Surgoinsville, Tennessee on June 22 after she reportedly struck up an online relationship with Shook, who had an active warrant for failure to register as a sex offender out of Georgia.
Surgoinsville is a town located in Hawkins County, about 30 minutes southwest of Kingsport.
Authorities said Wilson took her family's Ford Explorer to pick up Shook, which triggered the Amber Alert. The vehicle was later found abandoned.
She was spotted the day after she went missing at a Wal-Mart in Marion, North Carolina, with Shook. Witnesses then reported seeing both on June 24 near a campground in Sugar Grove, Virginia.
Details as to how the two were found have not yet been released. No additional details were known.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
