'Missing' girl found at home
Emileigh Barnes - The Daily Iowan
Issue date: 5/4/07 Section: Metro
When Krystal Halter accidentally broke a neighbor's fish tank on Wednesday, she worried her brother would tell on her.
Sneaking back into her house, the 6-year-old crawled under a bed and behind a suitcase, hoping to avoid a scolding. But while she was hiding, Krystal fell asleep, and no one at her house had noticed that she had come home.
Half an hour later, her mother became concerned that Halter had not returned to their Indigo Court residence. She reported Krystal missing to police at 7:46 p.m. In the more than four-hour search that followed, local authorities and volunteers scoured the area between where Halter was playing and her home, searching everywhere from nearby roads to ravines.
"The mother was appropriately alarmed," Iowa City police Sgt. Troy Kelsay said. "As time went on, more and more people became involved."
It wasn't until 12:15 a.m. that family members found Halter - still inside the house.
Those involved in the search included community members, 16 Iowa City police officers, as well as officials from the Iowa City Fire Department and the Johnson County Sheriff's Office.
To aid the search, community members responded by bicycling around the area, and others purchased flood lights from Wal-Mart, Kelsay added.
"Even those who didn't come out, many of them helped by working phone trees," Kelsay said.
Kelsay said although he would have preferred the search have resolved itself within the first 20 minutes, he was pleased no foul play was involved.
"I'm glad that it worked out this way," he said. "I don't think anyone begrudged the hours they spent looking for her."
Lea Stephan, Krystal's half sister, said she was at work when their mother reported Halter missing. The 16-year-old said she would have been devastated by the loss of one of her sisters.
"It's just, I lost one sister already; she moved in with my dad," Lea said.
She described Krystal as a tomboy who's "pretty adorable" when forced to dress up. Stephan said Krystal won't face any punishment because of her disappearance.
E-mail DI reporter Emileigh Barnes at:
emily-a-barnes@uiowa.edu
Sneaking back into her house, the 6-year-old crawled under a bed and behind a suitcase, hoping to avoid a scolding. But while she was hiding, Krystal fell asleep, and no one at her house had noticed that she had come home.
Half an hour later, her mother became concerned that Halter had not returned to their Indigo Court residence. She reported Krystal missing to police at 7:46 p.m. In the more than four-hour search that followed, local authorities and volunteers scoured the area between where Halter was playing and her home, searching everywhere from nearby roads to ravines.
"The mother was appropriately alarmed," Iowa City police Sgt. Troy Kelsay said. "As time went on, more and more people became involved."
It wasn't until 12:15 a.m. that family members found Halter - still inside the house.
Those involved in the search included community members, 16 Iowa City police officers, as well as officials from the Iowa City Fire Department and the Johnson County Sheriff's Office.
To aid the search, community members responded by bicycling around the area, and others purchased flood lights from Wal-Mart, Kelsay added.
"Even those who didn't come out, many of them helped by working phone trees," Kelsay said.
Kelsay said although he would have preferred the search have resolved itself within the first 20 minutes, he was pleased no foul play was involved.
"I'm glad that it worked out this way," he said. "I don't think anyone begrudged the hours they spent looking for her."
Lea Stephan, Krystal's half sister, said she was at work when their mother reported Halter missing. The 16-year-old said she would have been devastated by the loss of one of her sisters.
"It's just, I lost one sister already; she moved in with my dad," Lea said.
She described Krystal as a tomboy who's "pretty adorable" when forced to dress up. Stephan said Krystal won't face any punishment because of her disappearance.
E-mail DI reporter Emileigh Barnes at:
emily-a-barnes@uiowa.edu
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