Missing Durham County girls return home safely

Sisters Aubrey and Kelsey Fletcher, ages 14 and 12, couldn't find their way back home late Tuesday after leaving their Southview Road home for a walk. The home is in a rural part of eastern Durham County, near the Falls Lake State Recreation Area.

The girls left at about 2 p.m. Tuesday and didn't return home until about 8 a.m. Wednesday.

"Well, we started to go on a walk and then we went up back behind the house," Aubrey Fletcher said. "We were just walking, sat down and talked. It was getting dark where we were. We couldn't see anything."

As it got later and colder, the girls decided to try to sleep.

"It wasn't very comfortable," Aubrey said.

"You could hear small things all night, and it was horrible," Kelsey Fletcher said. "We heard this group of deer, and it was scary."

The girls' mother, Elaine Fletcher, said she tried to stay calm after reporting her children missing to authorities at about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday.

"I stayed focused that they were lost in the woods, so I stayed up and kept thinking of anything else I could do," she said. "Just praising the lord that they're safe. There was a lot of prayers last night, including myself, and a lot of answered prayers this morning."

Durham County deputies spent part of the evening Tuesday looking for the girls and had planned a more extensive search Wednesday morning before they returned home.

Aubrey said she and her sister learned a valuable lesson despite their scary night.

"Don't leave when mom's gone, always bring a phone if you go on a walk," she said.