Missing Texas Student Found Alive After Seven Years

A Texas A&M University student who had been feared murdered after disappearing nearly seven years ago has been found alive and working in Kentucky, according to authorities.

She disappeared in October 1998, and police spent hours searching for her body in wooded areas. They questioned a serial rapist and murderer about her just hours before he was executed last year. Undoubtedly an unpleasant memory for him.

But a telephone tip turned her up in Florence, Ky., where she has been working for the last five years at a Sam's Club. The woman, 27, hid from her family after she and her mother got into an argument over bad grades she received during her sophomore year and her family stopped paying for school.

For the last five years, she worked under her real name, using her Social Security number. But police said they were unable to locate her that way because they didn't know her SSN; and apparently didn’t ask.

Although she committed no crime in her disappearance, investigators spent a lot of money and time looking for her, Malinak said.

''The responsible thing to do would have been to let someone know you're OK,'' Malinak said. ''There are going to be people expending man-hours and effort, trying to find a missing person.''

But, why complain? The cops obviously need the practice.