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2 missing girls found in Texas

The Carrollwood area teens vanished more than a month ago, driving off in a pickup that was later found in Alabama.

By AMBER MOBLEY
Published August 27, 2005

TAMPA - The families of two missing Carrollwood area teens are thankful to be planning the girls' return and not their funerals.

Authorities in Sulphur Springs, Texas, notified the families of Lauren Romano, 17, and Juliann Coder, 16, late Thursday night that the girls had been found alive after disappearing more than a month ago.

"We were just ecstatic," Lauren's father, David Romano, said from his home in Tampa.

Both girls were in the custody of Texas Child Protection Services as of late Friday.

"We're trying to get a flight out of here and waiting on one phone call to let us know if we can come get her," David Romano said Friday.

Lauren and Juliann are doing fine, said Hillsborough County sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter. A truck driver picked up the girls in Alabama, where their 20-year-old pickup broke down near the Mississippi state line. The trucker took them to his home in Texas, according to a Hillsborough sheriff's report.

After questioning them, the truck driver became suspicious and contacted the Sulphur Springs Police Department, according to the Hillsborough report. Sulphur Springs authorities picked up the girls from the trucker's home on Thursday, Carter said.

Lauren, who has learning disabilities, and Juliann fled their Florida homes with nothing but a box of cookies, soft drinks and $70 in cash on July 14. The pickup was found along an interstate highway in Alabama soon after the girls disappeared, but authorities there and in Florida didn't connect the pickup to the girls until late last week.

The girls' families had feared the worst.

Now, David Romano said he and his wife can't wait to have their daughter back.

"I can't even, I can't talk about it," he said, choking with emotion.

Authorities still don't know why the girls ran away and are questioning them and the trucker, said Detective Sgt. Monty Tipps with the Sulphur Springs Police Department.

Sulphur Springs is about 80 miles east of Dallas.

David Romano called the investigation "a good thing because most (children who run away) are having problems at home.

"We don't feel like she was having problems at home," David Romano said. "We believe she just made some wrong choices."

[Last modified August 27, 2005, 01:13:13]