A Princeton Junction teenager reported missing by her family while vacationing in Wildwood was found safe in Absecon five days later.
Natasha Hanstveit was on a two-day vacation in Wildwood with her mother, Claudia, and sister, Sophie, when she disappeared, leaving her family to scour the city’s streets for almost a week.
According to authorities, the drama started when the family arrived in the city the evening of August 17 and went to the boardwalk. Natasha and her sister went off to buy ice cream and headed towards their motel room.
Natasha stopped and told Sophie that she wanted to go back to the boardwalk to find their mother and apologize for arguing with her earlier in the day. She gave her sister the room key and headed off toward the boardwalk. She wasn’t seen again for days.
According to her mother, Natasha is a student at a residential girls’ school in West Virginia that deals with kids with behavioral issues.
After the girl disappeared, family and friends spent 20 hours a day searching the streets of Wildwood looking for the missing girl.
Ultimately she was located 42 miles north of Wildwood on August 22, just outside of Atlantic City. “She was located safely in Absecon,” said Captain Lynn Frame of the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office. “That’s all the information I have right now.”
According to Natasha’s mother, the girl has been returned to her school.
