UPDATE: It was reported at noon today that Krystal has been found. Nine News Sydney tweeted:
#BREAKING: Missing 14 yo school girl Krystal Muhieddine has been found safe & well in country Victoria
More to come.
Last Friday fourteen-year old Krystal Muhieddine snuck out to see a movie. Her parents found out she had been lying about who she was with.
They were, as parents are often, a little bit angry with their daughter.
A week later she is missing.
Now her parents aren’t angry at all they are frantic with worry.
Krystal Muhieddine, from Hunters Hill in Sydney’s north is a typical fourteen-year old girl living half in an adult world and stuck half in childhood.
She has three sisters who love her dearly.
She has devoted parents.
She still sleeps with her teddy bear.
Her heartbroken parents, Wally and Suzanne pleaded yesterday for her to come home, or for anyone with information to come forward.
Mrs Muhieddine last saw her daughter at 5.30am on Tuesday, sitting in the passenger seat of a silver hatchback with red P-plates as it sped off from outside their house in Mount Street, Hunters Hill.
“Someone was waiting for her. She’s never dated anyone. She’s never had a boyfriend. She’s never been anywhere without me dropping her off.” she told the Sydney Morning Herald.
She took a bag with her – a small green backpack, and a small amount of money.
In a press conference yesterday they said that they knew she had been communicating with someone online.
Whilst her parents ban social media in their house they believe she was using the smart phone-messaging app Kik to communicate with the person she left with.
There was talk amoungst her friends that she had been talking to a boy. Her Dad said that they “believe she’s spoken about a boy but we don’t have anything else beyond that”
Her anguished father, Wally Muhieddine said, “our daughters this age don’t have boyfriends.”
“We can sort this out. Just come home,”
After she was caught sneaking out last week Krystal was in trouble at home. She has told her family she was allowed to go and see The Hunger Games at the movies. Her mum reprimanded her, “just normal parent stuff” and confiscated her mobile phone for the weekend.
Her Mum says that after that things between them were fine.
Her very distressed mother pleaded at the press conference. “You’ve done nothing wrong. Just come home. It’s nothing we can’t fix.”
Suzanne Muhieddine begged for her daughter to get in touch. “Just call and, if she doesn’t have her phone, just grab someone or go to a police station or a school or anything. Just come home.”
“We’re pretty distressed. We haven’t been able to make contact with her.”
Krystal’s mobile phone has been switched off and the family said they had been checking her emails regularly for any clues.
“She’s never been anywhere on her own. If you’re with Krystal you need to understand she’s just a baby, she’s not an adult. She’s tall but she’s actually a baby and you need to call us and bring her home safely.”
Mrs Muhieddine believes Krystal may have met the person with whom she ran away that night.
She had recently started a new school – after leaving the previous one due to bullying.
Her mum told the SMH “She had a lot of bullying issues. She didn’t keep any friends at [her previous school]. She’s just didn’t fit in with the clique there.”
Krystal is enrolled in year 8 at Santa Sabina College, Strathfield, in Sydney’s inner West.
“She’s so happy … we thought she had turned a corner.”
Mrs Muhieddine said teachers at the new school had become just “like a second family” and were giving herself, her husband and three other daughters a lot of support.
Krystal is described as being of Mediterranean or Middle Eastern appearance, about 180cm tall with a thin build, shoulder length brown curly hair, black framed reading glasses and wearing a dark navy blue hooded top.
Inspector Richard Puffet from Ryde Local Area Command said running away was “totally out of character for Krystal”.
Police are urging anyone with information about this incident to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or use the Crime Stoppers online reporting page: https://www.police.nsw.gov.au/.
Top Comments
Glad she's been found but reading this article and seeing the parents on the Today show, well, therein lies the problem... "She's just a baby". Well really she's not. Parents of Krystal, I am a mother too, give her the opportunity for you to trust that she knows how to be... Give her the opportunity to grow up
She doesn't know how to be. She ran away with a stranger. Whoever took her was old enough to drive a car, at least two years older with a fourteen year old.
She is not old enough to understand complicated relationships or understand the danger she was in. Thank goodness she is safe but it could have turned out far worse. Her parents were right to be careful and treat her like a child, because she is!
I agree 100%, too many parents think like that, treating her like a baby... And the comment about not dating at that age... Its like asking her to sneak around with someone you've never met band get knocked up! The number of girls that age that I've seen sexually active is extremely high!! Parents are foolishly neive and live in a magic bubble thinking their kids are ignorant, innocent to everything and think they do nothing wrong. When I was in college, and that's been a number of years ago (its way worse now!), it was VERY COMMON to see girls that age and younger not only being sexually active with kids their own age but ACTIVELY HUNTING and catching college guys and guys in their 20's + that they wanted to date and have sex with. Most of these girls knew how to dress and apply makeup so that they looked much older so that unless they slipped up in their speach or topics you had no clue as to how young they were! Parents need to wake up. Kids need freedom to grow and learn but they also need monitored constantly and need their parents keeping them active in sports orother projects aand programs so their time is used in a positive manner helping them to grow into great young adults. This requires family, friends and neighbors working together to make it happen. You can't give a void as cellphone and use it as va babysitter! Hell, honestly there's no reason why kids should have cellphones anyway, we never did send we were better for it! ( and most of us wish we didn't have them now;)
Glad she has been found