A Florida mother says she has finally heard from missing daughter Emily Paul, who left a note and vanished from the family home five years ago, when she was 14. "To all our friends and extended family, we want to let you know that we have heard from Emily," Pam Massimiani said in a Facebook post. "We do not have any further information to share at the moment." Massimiani says she has received a letter which she is "pretty sure" came from Emily, though she is not going to reveal the contents, the Panama City News-Herald reports. "There’s a lot of mixed emotions and a lot of feelings," she says.
"The ball is in her court still," Massimiani says. Bay County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Joel Heape tells People that the sheriff's office is still trying to determine whether the letter really came from Emily, who apparently followed online advice on how to disappear successfully. She took items she had used to get online, including her XBox, and never reappeared on Facebook or other social media sites. (This runaway Georgia teen ended up spending years with traveling hippies.)