St. George family finds missing daughter

ST. GEORGE — After more than a month of searching and a strenuous investigation, a St. George family has their 17-year-old daughter back.

“I prayed and prayed that you would come, and you came,” Sarah Dunsey reportedly told her family.

The family, who had believed Dunsey was abducted Jan. 15 from Las Vegas, Nevada, for sex trafficking, made the announcement Saturday that Dunsey had been found Friday in California.

“Thank you all for sharing, getting Sarah’s face out there, and helping us to find her,” Dunsey’s mother, Amie Ellis, said in a statement. “Thank you to the people that sent us the tips that found her.”

The family did not offer specifics about where their daughter was found or her condition.

The family, instead, asked for space and privacy, noting that they will be going to their “safe place” to “retreat and heal.”

Ellis, who had released an emotional plea for her daughter’s safe return, offered these final words Saturday:

We are tied to each other in more ways than we think. I felt everyone’s prayers and energy sent to our family and Sarah. We all want the same thing for our children. To be safe and feel loved. We are tied by a universal need and desire for our children to not be hurt. Thank you for helping my baby girl come home.

In an effort not to jeopardize aspects of the ongoing investigation, certain details about the case have not been released to the public.

The FBI in Los Angeles is leading the investigation.

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @STGnews

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2017, all rights reserved.

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37 Comments

  • MormonWageSlave February 18, 2017 at 11:56 am

    Why was the girl allowed so freely to just go to a Vegas hotel casino and also why exactly does a 17 year old have a tattoo?? While I am very glad she is home and safe, I am hoping the parents can maybe re-evaluate their parenting skills.

    • Overwatch February 18, 2017 at 1:20 pm

      Wow. The hypocrisy and mean spirit of the above comment is almost beyond belief.

      • the_advocate February 20, 2017 at 7:05 am

        right? people are so quick to judge, without educating themselves first.

    • comments February 18, 2017 at 2:09 pm

      17 year olds often like to think they are adults, and lets be honest, they can be pretty wild. I know 0 detail about this particular case, but she could’ve been a wild one and just took off on her own to vegas with her friends. Whether this was an actual abduction or just a 17 year old trying on the ‘party girl’ lifestyle who knows. I tend to think it was an abduction since teens can only be parted from their phones by force. If she was actually sex trafficked and made to work as a prostitute she’ll likely have deep mental scars for the rest of her life, but at least she’s alive.

      • comments February 18, 2017 at 3:08 pm

        anyways I see that she’d been in contact on and off with family and friends after her disappearance. So whether she was held against her will… who knows. Media never gives enough info to get an accurate picture of the situation and often times (esp with social media) these things are blown way out of proportion. Rebellious runaway teen??? or kidnapped sex slave??? we may never know. 😉

    • lilkim February 18, 2017 at 2:34 pm

      For the comment above-Re-Evaluate parenting skills?? You have absolutely NO stand to throw such harsh judgemegnt. I personally know Sarah’s mother. She is extremely loving, kind and understanding. Exactly what a 17 year old daughter needs. Do you know of ANY 17 year old who doesn’t push their boundaries & independence?! That’s exactly what they are supposed to be doing.!!! Unbelievable for someone to think they can judge another, knowing NOTHING of the background. The ONLY kind of comments needed here are of extreme gratitude for having Sarah home to her loving family.
      -Kim P

    • ladybugavenger February 18, 2017 at 2:52 pm

      Bob, is that you? LOL!

    • Have3bratz February 18, 2017 at 8:42 pm

      I completely agree with you, why is a 17 yr old sportin a tat??? Great parenting or there lack of… I have three kids and they all know that when they turn 18 they can do whatever they want!!! As long as they aren’t under my roof!!! But until then they follow my rules!!! So far they are doing just fine too… And no we aren’t even Mormons so the hypothetical term doesn’t work on me!!!
      I am very glad they found her tho and hope she is ok… Obviously she must have gone through an ordeal if they have to go to their safe place to heal and overcome whatever happened… May God bless them all…

      • the_advocate February 20, 2017 at 7:11 am

        some cultures have tattoos as their coming of age symbol, we have no right to judge others with our simple, ignorant, and uneducated mind.

    • Paratrooper501 February 19, 2017 at 9:47 am

      MormonWageSlave. Firstly, what the heck kind of name is this? By taking the definition of “wage slave”, I can only conclude that your life is completely dependent on Mormonism? I don’t really care to be honest with you. However, you come off as one big piece of judgmental, arrogant, and ignorant sh*t. Im sure Jesus still loves you, but maybe you ought to re-evaluate your christian ethos.

      Seriously, “…why exactly does a 17 year old have a tattoo?”. Consider this, she went somewhere and got a tattoo. Its not complicated. Besides the obvious on why she has a tattoo, who the hell cares about tattoo’s anymore? Why must people like you persist in creating a stigma and stereotype against people with tattoos? As if a person with tattoos is going to hell for that sole reason? Where in your religion does it say a person can’t have tattoos. Get over it.

      As far as a 17 year old going to Vegas. A persons brain and maturity development between the ages of 17 and 18 are practically nonexistent. Your implying that a 17 year old should not go to Vegas with a group of friends but in one year, at the age of 18, it would be socially acceptable for this girl to get married and pregnant.

      Im sorry. But your an absolute twat. Get a life.

  • voice of reason February 18, 2017 at 1:55 pm

    There is no way on earth that kid was being held against her will for “sex trafficking”. I hope and pray that the family is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law for their false claims about their kid who ran away from home. This story stinks worse than than the diaper pail in my babies room.

    Fake news!

  • lilkim February 18, 2017 at 2:33 pm

    For the comment above-Re-Evaluate parenting skills?? You have absolutely NO stand to throw such harsh judgemegnt. I personally know Sarah’s mother. She is extremely loving, kind and understanding. Exactly what a 17 year old daughter needs. Do you know of ANY 17 year old who doesn’t push their boundaries & independence?! That’s exactly what they are supposed to be doing.!!! Unbelievable for someone to think they can judge another, knowing NOTHING of the background. The ONLY kind of comments needed here are of extreme gratitude for having Sarah home to her loving family.
    -Kim P

  • mmsandie February 18, 2017 at 2:37 pm

    Some info should be told to us as to where she was , and how she was allowed to go to vegas, only 17,, she really owes the searchers some information otherwise people won,t search next time

  • comments February 18, 2017 at 3:17 pm

    “St. George family finds missing daughter”

    Logan? or stg?

  • debbie February 18, 2017 at 5:25 pm

    Bored hillbillies with less information could have left a better mean spirited comment, this person is just itching to be rewarded for their superiority… what a nasty comment… malicious and pardon a parent for not being oppressive slave drivers… oh silly teenager for being .. a teenager too.. oh better get onto GOD for creating puberty! PS. Thank u Lord for bringing her home.

  • roughest February 18, 2017 at 5:51 pm

    @MormonWageSlave: How. Dare. You. What was it that Pres. Uchtdorf said about judging? Oh, yeah! DON’T DO IT! You must be very blessed to never have a child that makes bad decisions. Parenting skills have zero impact when your teens are spreading their wings. Remember that the absolute best and greatest parents in the UNIVERSE lost 1/3 of their children to their own bad decisions. Hopefully you’ll have a little more compassion next time.

    • ladybugavenger February 19, 2017 at 9:33 am

      Who’s Pres. Utchdorf?

      Is that a Mormon thing?

      If so, who cares what he says…it’s about what Jesus says. Geeeeeze, for a church that has Jesus in its name it’s teachings are from it. You worship a man and not Jesus. The mormons take Gods glory and make it their own. Shame shame shame

      • roughest February 19, 2017 at 1:27 pm

        What in the world are you talking about?

        • ladybugavenger February 19, 2017 at 2:27 pm

          Exactly, your quoting some dueshbag and you don’t have a clue what I’m talking about because you are blinded by Mormonism

          • comments February 19, 2017 at 2:41 pm

            Uctdorf is one of the holy 12 of LDS royalty. Don’t know why she called him “pres” because last I heard Tommy monsoon was still alive.

          • roughest February 19, 2017 at 5:43 pm

            Lol. Okay, I see where the confusion is, now. See, my comment was not directed to you, but to MormonWageSlave, who IS a Mormon and knows who/what I was referring to. I offer my sincere apologies for not taking your ignorance into account when making my comment to someone else.

          • Alittleinsight February 19, 2017 at 7:34 pm

            Whoa, didn’t you just talk about not hating? There is no book of Jesus. If we want to know what Jesus said, we read writings from his apostles. Mormons believe Pres. Uchdorf is an apostle, just like Peter, James, John etc. It’s okay for you to believe we are crazy for believing in modern day revelation. But accusing us of worshipping men, because we regard them as apostles, when you yourself refer to “What Jesus says” when the only writings we have are from appostles, is hypocrisy.

          • Henry February 19, 2017 at 7:50 pm

            Thanks for educating ignorant non-Mormons like Ladybug and me. BTW, go check out the daughter Sarah Dunsey’s Facebook page – it might make you soil your special Mormon underwear. LOL

          • ladybugavenger February 19, 2017 at 10:20 pm

            Thank you Bob for the info!
            Hi Henry!
            Y’all have a blessed day!

            Alittleinsight it’s ok. The plygs call warren jeffs their profit and worship him…kinda scares me when people use words as profit and apostles, as if we all don’t have the gift of prophesy at one time or another.

          • ladybugavenger February 19, 2017 at 10:22 pm

            Did I use the spelling profit? Maybe that slip is appropriate.

          • ladybugavenger February 20, 2017 at 11:02 am

            For example, I prophesied Trump’s election. I knew he was going to win (thank you Jesus).

            How did I and others know? How did we know he was going to win when so many predicted otherwise? It’s simple, we prophesied.

            So I get nervous when religions choose a prophet as if they are closer to God. It doesn’t work like that. We all can choose to believe the word of God and accept Jesus and receive gifts and not just one man of a religious cult. You can’t work your way into heaven. You need to accept Jesus into your heart and then comes works. Faith without works is dead.

            The Mormon religion is off the mark but not all mormons are off the mark.

            Mormons believe they are the one true church and I’ve heard people say that only Mormons go to heaven but then back peddle when questioned and say well, your a good person you’ll go to heaven. Being a good person does not get you into heaven. Accepting Jesus to come into your heart and forgive you for your sins and making him your Lord and savior and then walking and changing your life and ways is the way. God only knows who’s going to heaven, Jesus doesn’t even know. My hope is on judgment day when I answer for my sins that God says that I’m forgiven and cast my soul to heaven. I fear the one true living God, and that’s why you will find i have been through the Fire and I came out with strong convictions.

            I have not heard one Mormons testimony of how God changed their life? Not the church, but how God changed their life. How did accepting Jesus change your life?

            Would any Mormon like to share?

          • ladybugavenger February 20, 2017 at 11:10 am

            I have one more question, what does being Mormon mean?

  • mesaman February 18, 2017 at 9:10 pm

    There is thankfulness enough to allow many of us to feel the power of prayer and we willingly share our them, and we extend our gratitude for the outcome of this difficult ordeal.

  • voice of reason February 19, 2017 at 7:53 am

    OMG, some of these comments are just ridiculous. I know it’s hard when “journalists” don’t care about anything more than a catchy headline that gets lots of clicks, but there is so much more to this story. If you take time and look at multiple sources, you can piece together more of the picture.

    The kid was in Vegas because she RAN AWAY FROM HOME with a few of her friends. Her friends decided to come home, but sweet Sarah decided to stay and hang out with her new friends.

    When you go out and publicly plea for help and people commit time and resources, you absolutely owe the public the truth. Sounds like the family is afraid of the truth.

    • Henry February 19, 2017 at 10:25 am

      Incisive and appropriate points.

    • comments February 19, 2017 at 1:41 pm

      yep, we as the public deserve the truth. The parents made a hugely public thing of it and we deserve the whole story.

  • .... February 19, 2017 at 8:35 am

    Another example of media making something out of nothing.

    • Real Life February 19, 2017 at 9:41 am

      Another example of you being an idiot.

      • .... February 22, 2017 at 2:24 am

        And another example of you being an idiot looking for job

  • ladybugavenger February 19, 2017 at 9:27 am

    For all of you that say the first comment was judging, to all of you I say, y’all lack judgement. We all must have judgment in our lives to make a decision. Hence, good or bad judgment when making a choice.

    What y’all are referring to his thou shall not judge, that refers to saying someone is going to hell or not. What y’all refer to when y’all say “judge” is hate, what you mean is don’t hate. The first comment was not judgmental or hate it is concern. Learn the difference.

  • debbie February 24, 2017 at 6:42 am

    ladybug avenger, you referring to Ephesians 2:8-9New King James Version (NKJV)

    8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.

    ps.. so glad this child has been found.. it is hard to go thru puberty. life is so hard now a days for the young.. they either have to dance to the tuti fruiti and be ga-ga for new world order, or they have to crush the crowds of people like that around them with intense brute.. add in the confusion of all the different religions, everyones opinions, laws changing every minute.. i can see where a girl just wants to find a hero, make a baby and go hide in a house somewhere.. our youth are being destroyed by this out of control floating thoughts, narcissistic youth movement..

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