Hailey Burns, a 17-year-old North Carolina girl who went missing more than a year ago, has been found in a Georgia home with a 31-year-old man, Michael Ren Wysolovski.
What Happened?
Burns was found in a house in Duluth after a special agent in Charlotte received a tip about her location. She was rescued shortly before midnight on Saturday and Wysolovki was taken into custody. He now faces a handful of state charges, the FBI said, including aggravated sodomy, cruelty to children and false imprisonment.
Burns’ parents, who say Hailey has Asperger’s syndrome, met Wysolovski online.
“He got her in the car, brought her straight to his house and she pretty much had to stay there the whole time,” her mother, Shaunna Burns, told WSOC-TV on Sunday.
According to IJR.com, her parents learned from a classmate that she had “been talking to” a then-30-year-old man and exchanging pone messages with him in which she called him “Daddy.”
Shaunna said that while being held captive, Burns met a Romanian woman online whom she told that she was missing. The woman researched the case and then contacted Burns’ parents on Friday night.
“We got the first message at 8:09 [P.M.] and then, by 12:32 [A.M.], they had her,” Shaunna said.
Burns’ parents said a tipster reached out to her to find out where she was. Burns was unsure of her exact location, so she took a photo from the house window and within hours, she was rescued.
Last month, the Charlotte Division of the FBI offered a $15,000 reward for anyone who could help located Hailey.
“We know that this happy ending is not the norm, it is the exception to the rule,” Shaunna said.
“We want people to know that there are happy endings to this kind of a story. It was a dream come true.”
Hailey Burns
Hailey Burns is a 17-year-old girl from North Carolina who went missing more than a year ago. Over the weekend she was found in a Georgia home with a 31-year-old man, Michael Ren Wysolovski.
According to Burns’ parents, the teenager as Aspergers syndrome. She reportedly met Wysolovski online and was taken captive by him after their first in person meeting.
