Newberry teenage runaways found panhandling in San Diego

A week after the Newberry Sheriff’s Department issued a missing persons alert for two county teenagers, the two were found Tuesday unharmed and more than 2300 miles away.

Jonathan Dale Dennis, 15 and Alysia Margaret Skipper, 16, were picked up in San Diego on Tuesday after someone called the local police to complain about two people begging outside a Home Depot.

A check of the SC license plates on their Hummer H3 showed that the vehicle was wanted in South Carolina and that the two were runaways, Newberry County Sheriff Lee Foster said in a news release.

Arrangements are being made now for the two teens to be brought back to South Carolina and reunited with their families, Foster said.

“I am so relieved for the families,” Foster said but added that there are still many unanswered questions about the teens’ trip across the country.

This story was originally published May 13, 2015 at 5:51 PM with the headline "Newberry teenage runaways found panhandling in San Diego."