Runaway Shevaun back in arms of her parents

THE parents of a 12-year-old British girl who ran off with a former US Marine yesterday told of the moment she phoned to say she was coming home.

Shevaun Pennington was safe and well back in the arms of her parents, Stephen and Joanna, last night, five days after disappearing with the ex-soldier she had met over the internet. Mrs Pennington, 42, of Lowton, near Leigh, Greater Manchester, later described the early-morning phone call, in which her daughter said she was coming home, as the best she had ever had.

The schoolgirl flew home alone from Stuttgart, via Amsterdam, before being met by police and taken to a joyful family reunion at Leigh police station. Shortly before Shevaun arrived back, former US Marine Toby Studabaker, 31, was arrested in Frankfurt on suspicion of child abduction.

Superintendent Peter Mason, a senior officer in the hunt for the pair, broke the news to reporters that Shevaun was safe.

“It is a great relief to inform you that Shevaun Pennington is safe and well,” he said. “Toby Studabaker was arrested by German police at Frankfurt this afternoon. He was arrested for abduction under the power of an international arrest warrant sworn out in the Greater Manchester area.”

Mr Mason had phoned the FBI in America around lunchtime, triggering an operation that involved British police, the FBI and the German authorities. Earlier, it emerged that authorities involved in the hunt had found child pornography downloaded from the internet to a computer used by Studabaker. It was also clear, from evidence on the computer, that the former soldier had known Shevaun’s real age, despite telling his own family that she had claimed to be 19.

But the media were asked not to refer to what had been found on the computer or the fact Studabaker had once been charged with molesting a 12-year-old girl until the pair had been found, in case it jeopardised the hunt.

The search ended when the schoolgirl was met from a plane at Manchester airport around 2.30pm. She had been with Studabaker “until very recently,” police said. Just two hours earlier, Shevaun’s mother made another appeal to her daughter to come home. Joanna Pennington, said: “Come home. Please come home. That is all we want.”

Later a smiling Mrs Pennington told of the moment she first hugged her daughter following her ordeal.

She said: “I cannot tell you how relieved I am. It is such a turnaround from the situation days ago, which seems years ago. It is absolutely fantastic.”

She described the reunion: “I said ‘how are you’ and ‘give us a hug.’ She gave me a hug and said she was not too bad. We will take it from there.”

Mr Pennington, 43, added: “she seemed well enough. I asked if she was tired, she said she was all right. From now on, we just carry on with our lives as best we can.”

His wife joked: “I don’t think anybody could have even written this. It has been unbelievable. It is like living your life seeing it as if you are looking in.”

T he schoolgirl, who had joked at the reunion that she did not like the photographs of herself issued to the media, had disappeared on Saturday after arranging to meet with Studabaker.

Her parents raised the alarm late on Saturday night but by then, the pair had already flown to Paris via Heathrow. Their movements from then on were not known, but they separated in Germany yesterday having been together overnight, police said.

A spokeswoman for the Federal Bureau of Criminal Investigations in Wiesbaden said Studabaker had been arrested walking alone in Frankfurt-am-Main after German police were alerted to the fact that he was wanted in Britain.

He is now in police custody in Frankfurt while investigations continue into whether he must face a court in Germany or can be extradited immediately to Britain, said the spokeswoman.

In America, Studabaker’s sister-in-law, Sherry, said news of the arrest was a “relief.”

She told PA News: “this has been a very difficult few days for the family. We are glad it now seems to be drawing to a close.”

But speaking to Sky News she said she felt the media had been exaggerating the significance of Shevaun’s disappearance with Studabaker. “This was all a mistake and a misunderstanding. He believed her. She told him that she was 19, she was in college. This is just a big mistake and I think Shevaun will straighten it out, I hope anyway.”

Mr and Mrs Pennington and their daughter later left Leigh Police Station their daughter in a police people carrier.