10/26/2009
TIM UNRUH
LEHIGH — Bill Simhiser is thankful his daughter Tara is home and safe, and hopeful that lessons were learned from her disappearance last week.
“I think this is a rude awakening for her,” Bill Simhiser said. “I can only hope that she’ll be a little more careful from now on.”
Tara, 17, returned to class at Hillsboro High School Monday, four days after a Marion County sheriff’s deputy delivered her home to Lehigh, located in Marion County. She had been missing since Oct. 20.
“We were all of a sudden relieved. It was like a big ol’ house had been lifted off of us,” Bill Simhiser said. “She was just real happy to be home.”
With the help of an Amber Alert, media coverage and an observant bank teller in Hiawatha, Tara was located.
“I was relieved she was unharmed and OK,” said Robert Craft, Marion County sheriff.
“When you’ve got the whole world looking at a picture, there’s eyes everywhere,” Bill Simhiser said.
While he wouldn’t provide many details of what happened, Craft said Tara was not physically injured. Emotional scars “could be determined later,” he said.