South Charlotte mom who vanished with daughter found 700 miles away, in Missouri

A mother and her daughter missing from their south Charlotte home for three days have been found 700 miles from Charlotte near St. Louis, Mo., police said Wednesday morning. They are safe, police said. However, it was unclear if one or both had been injured in some way.

A tweet sent out by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police said 33-year-old Megan Stack and her 8-year-old daughter Ava went to an EMS station outside St. Louis and asked to be taken to a hospital to be evaluated. “Authorities are working now to reunite Ava with other family members,” said police officials.

Police had been worried about the pair’s safety because of Stack’s “emotional state” when she fled Charlotte Monday afternoon.

WSOC reported the two were found in Franklin County, Mo. Police said Stack had called relatives around midnight to tell them they were OK, the station reported.

Stack left her home on Cloister Drive around 1:30 p.m. Monday. Investigators say the mother then picked up her daughter, Ava, from school.

Their home is in the Foxcroft area of south Charlotte, off Providence Road.

The mother and child disappeared Monday afternoon and investigators said Megan Stack’s “emotional state and recent behavior” created serious concerns for their safety.

“There is extreme cause for the concern and safety of both mother and daughter due to Megan’s emotional state and recent erratic behavior,” according a post on the Facebook page of Ava’s father, Timothy Lybarger.

Lybarger, told WSOC that he thinks Stack doesn’t have a grasp on reality. He said she believes that people are after her and that her life is in danger.

Lybarger wrote in a Facebook post that before leaving Charlotte, Stack went to a business off North Graham Street and dumped her phone, laptop, wallet, credit cards and camera so she couldn’t be traced.

This story was originally published December 6, 2017 at 8:06 AM with the headline "South Charlotte mom who vanished with daughter found 700 miles away, in Missouri."