ALLEN PARK, Mich. (WXYZ) — Runaway 14-year-old twin sisters who were reported missing in Detroit were recovered after a month.
Police body camera video from Monday morning shows the moments they were found at a hotel in Allen Park with a man who has a criminal past.
They were found after a woman in Nebraska reported a stolen debit card to police and the hotel where her card was charged.
"I swear for about a week, I've been telling them something bad would happen on Monday," Megan McQuain said.
McQuain from Omaha, Nebraska, was right. Sunday night and Monday morning, her daughter Abigale received unexpected text messages on her cellphone that connected the family in Nebraska to a Comfort Inn hotel in Allen Park.
"I was very concerned and confused. I was on the phone with my boyfriend. And my boyfriend said, 'Go tell your mom,'" Abigale said.
Around 11:30 p.m. Sunday, Abigale received a text from her bank, which was one of many showing that her debit card was used at several hotels including one in Allen Park. Her mother immediately called the hotel and law enforcement.
"It's after midnight at this point and as I'm doing a police report with our officer, I got a call from the detective that they had the man in custody that had taken my daughter's debit card information,"" said McQuain.
But what unfolded next in Allen Park made everyone's heart stop.
Police body camera video shows moments when officers find teens at hotel:
"I'm talking to them (the girls). You (a man) can go to your car. You (the suspect) can go to the front desk with him (another officer)," Allen Park Police Department Officer James Vanderaa said on body camera footage.
Vanderaa recognized two teenagers who were found in a 30-year-old man's hotel room.
"I know who you guys are, I know who is looking for you and we will have to solve this tonight," Vanderaa told the girls.
The 14-year-old twins ran away on March 8 while visiting their grandmother in River Rouge.
The twins were reunited with their father right away. The suspect, Marcus Peoples, has been charged with computer crime, credit card fraud and harboring runaway children.
"I just want you to know it was your quick thinking, your quick response that saved their lives," I told McQuain and Abigale over a video call.
"I was shocked. It turned out to be so much to be more," Abigale said. "I thought it was just a stolen debit card."
"Who knows where they would have been? As a parent, I would have been sick," McQuain said.
The investigation is ongoing as to how the teens connected with the suspect and how the suspect acquired Abigale's debit card.
Meanwhile, in a statement to us, Allen Park Police Department Chief Christopher Egan said:
"I am extremely proud of these officers, professionalism, and tenacity to follow through on a case working as a team that allowed them to observe these missing girls. Their quick actions may have prevented a more serious situation."
