Missing local girl found safe
GERMAN TWP. – A 12-year-old girl who reportedly had disappeared Thursday was found safe Saturday afternoon after an intense search. Brittany Zeiler of Edenborn had run away from home after an apparent argument with her father, state police at Uniontown said Saturday afternoon.
Another local girl found Brittany around 1:30 p.m. in a dense brushy area approximately 200 yards from her residence.
She was taken to the Uniontown Hospital, where she was examined and then released to her father. She suffered from some minor hypothermia, after apparently being exposed to the weather for approximately 46 hours, police said.
The girl, a student at Bible Baptist Church School in Uniontown, said she had not been the victim of any crimes while she was missing, according to police. She told police she had run away due to a misunderstanding/argument between herself and her father, Tom Zeiler.
She had been seen last around 2:15 p.m. Thursday on the porch of her residence by a bus driver who had just dropped her off from school. Her father, who was at home at the time, told police she never came into the house, and he reported her missing around 8 that night.
On Friday, numerous state police troopers, firefighters, members of the Fayette County Sheriff Search and Rescue team, neighbors, friends and state constables scoured the area, using the township municipal building as a command post.
Inside the meeting room Friday, troopers pored over maps and discussed search areas, while outside, helicopters buzzed overhead. Flyers with pictures of the girl were piled on a table inside and posted on the door outside the building. Friends and family issued pleas over various media.
While standing outside the Zeilers’ house on Friday, the girl’s uncle William Zeiler of Balsinger told the media he had spent the day searching in the neighboring slag dump and woods for his niece. He described his brother, Tom Zeiler, as “a mess.”
State police had distributed a description of the girl and even had issued an advisory to the public to be on the lookout for a black man and white man who were driving a teal blue, Chevrolet Cavalier that was seen in the area at the time of the girl’s disappearance.