COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A police detective is questioning the claim of an Ohio teenager who says she ran away to Florida fearing for her life because she converted from Islam to Christianity.
Sgt. Jerry Cupp, head of the Columbus Police Department's missing persons' bureau, says the girl's father seems genuinely concerned and worried about his 17-year-old daughter.
Cupp said Wednesday that police tracked the teen from Columbus to Orlando, Fla., after interviewing a minister from Kansas City who had been in touch with the girl.
An Orlando judge on Monday ordered the girl into the custody of the Florida Department of Children and Families until a hearing next week.
The teenager, who is not a U.S. citizen, says she fears her family would hurt her, kill her or send her back to her native Sri Lanka.
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