Police located Chrisma Joy Denny alive and well in Knoxville, Tennessee, early Sunday morning.
Denny was found at 1 a.m. Atlantic time. Cape Breton Regional Police said she confirmed her identity and indicated her intent to return home.
Chief and council for the Eskasoni First Nation are already in the process of arranging to fly Chrisma from Tennessee to Maine, if not straight back to Cape Breton. She doesn’t have a passport so unless authorities will accept her status card – the only piece of identification Chrisma has with her – someone will meet her in Maine to get her the rest of the way to Eskasoni, said Denny’s father.
Denny said he doesn’t know yet why his daughter disappeared and it’s not something they discussed during their brief conversation.
“I didn’t go there. I didn’t need to, because I just told her ‘This is dad calling,’ and I said ‘I’m happy you’re OK. You stay where you are.’”
It didn’t take long for news of the discovery to spread through the area, giving the family an early Christmas present they won’t soon forget.
“Everybody cried. It was so emotional here.”
Agencies/Canadajournal