Missing Teen Found

UPDATE:

Madison Watson, the 13-year-old James Rutter Middle School student who went missing from her south Sacramento home earlier this week, has been found, family members said Thursday night.

They did not give details on why Madison may have disappeared, but said that she was in good health.

"This is a rare happy ending for such stories," Madison's cousin Stephanie wrote on Facebook. "We are beside ourselves."

Madison's mother, Carrie Watson, posted the news around 9:00 p.m.

A Sacramento Sheriff's Department press release said the girl was located in Fresno.

Here's the original story:

The last time Madison Watson's parents say they saw her, she was headed to bed Sunday night wearing Hello Kitty pajamas.

But by Monday morning, the 13-year-old student had disappeared from her home in the 7900 block of Springarden Way in south Sacramento, near the Elk Grove border.

"She didn't take any clothes or shoes, she didn't leave a note," said Madison's father, Chris Watson.

The FBI and the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department have launched a search for the girl, with family and friends—including several relatives in Elk Grove—helping out via Facebook.

Posters describe Madison as 5'2" and about 100 pounds, with auburn hair, blue eyes and braces. She was wearing a red feather in her hair when last seen, and has a scar on her right ankle. A Sheriff's Department press release said she is considered at-risk "due to her unstable mental condition" and her father said she had recently struggled with depression.

One possible clue to Madison's whereabouts, according to her father: a Bakersfield phone number, the last she called from her cell phone, which she took with her and is now turned off. Madison called the number several times in the days before she went missing, he said, leading family members to suspect she may have left home voluntarily.

Still, Chris Watson said he doubts his daughter planned to be away long.

"If she had planned on being away for a lengthy period, a normal person would have at least been prepared for it," he said.

Watson thanked community members for their support, and asked them to keep up the search for his daughter, who he described as an honor student with few disciplinary problems "besides the normal pre-teen girl stuff."

On the Facebook group Bring Madison Home, her mother, Carrie Watson, asked friends to join her in prayer.

"It has been three days, three long agonizing days of waiting and wondering and hoping and waiting," she wrote.

Anyone with information about Madison Watson's whereabouts should contact the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department at (916) 874-5115. 

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