Missouri Mom Pretended She and Her Daughter Were Abducted, Sheriff's Office Says
"Help me." 
via The photo of Rachel Koechner and her daughter that authorities distributed.
So read the text that Rachel Koechner, 28, apparently sent to her boyfriend the night before she and her four-year-old daughter were reported missing. They had last been seen Thursday in the Brookfield area -- and authorities were concerned she was with her ex-husband, the father of her daughter. They reportedly had a history of domestic violence, the Chariton County Sheriff's Office had said, and when she spoke briefly with her worried boyfriend on the phone, it "sounded like she was reading off a script."
But the pair was found safe in central Missouri, authorities announced early today -- and Koechner is now facing charges that she faked the abduction.
The Associated Press reports that the authorities eventually located the mother and daughter at 10 p.m. last night at a home in Linn County. It's unclear whose home it was, but no one was injured, officials say.
Police say that after an investigation, they determined that the mother fabricated some sort of abduction story, declining to provide additional details. Meanwhile, her ex-husband was also located, and though he was not charged in connection with the disappearance of Koechner and her daughter, he was taken into custody on an outstanding forgery warrant, officials say.
via Facebook Original missing flyer.
And Koechner is now being held in Chariton County Jail pending charges.
The young girl was placed in state custody.
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