As a young runaway himself who now has a 16-year-old daughter, a police chief in southeastern Minnesota made a direct plea on Facebook for a teenager missing for a month to come back to her nearby community.
Kenyon Police Chief Lee Sjolander, who bounced around southern Minnesota early in life with his mother and siblings, wrote Tuesday to Audrey Lukes, saying that as an "old guy who's a dad first, and a cop second," he and his officers "are here to help if we can."
Lukes, who turned 16 Wednesday, hasn't been seen since Feb. 22. The Le Sueur County Sheriff's Office suspects she ran away from her home in Montgomery.
In the posting made Tuesday and simply signed "Lee," the 50-year-old social-media-savvy father of three made his appeal for Lukes to come back in strictly personal terms.
"Even though I don't know you, I'm worried about you," wrote Sjolander, who has been chief in the city of roughly 1,800 since 2007. "I don't know your past and it doesn't matter to me. What matters is your safety and if you are running from something, it's not going away. You'll need to handle whatever it is and we are here to help if we can."
As a father, the chief continued, "I worry about kids. I've got three and they are all older than you, they aren't perfect, nor am I, nor are you, and that's OK. We tell people around here that we can do a lot with a good heart, and a willingness to change, if this sounds like you, please call our office ..."
Sjolander noted his department was staffed overnight by 24-year-old Officer Amy Reding, who's "way cooler than me, and she would love to help."
The chief closed with, "So that's it, just a note from [an] old guy who's a dad first, and a cop second. Stay safe, Lee."