Brittany Mae Smith Found Safe in San Francisco

ROANOKE, Va. (CBS/WDBJ/AP) A Roanoke, Virginia County official says a 12-year-old girl missing for one week has been found unharmed Friday after she and the man accused in her abduction were recognized in a store in San Francisco.

Teresa Hamilton Hall said 32-year-old Jeffrey Scott Easley is in custody. He had been the boyfriend of Brittany's mother, who was found dead on Monday. Police have not released the cause of Tina Smith's death, but have ruled it a homicide.

Brittany Mae Smith has since been in touch with her family in Virginia, while Jeffrey Scott Easley, 32, was in police custody in San Francisco, Roanoke County Police Chief Ray Lavinder said at a news conference.

PICTURES: Brittany Mae Smith Missing

Authorities have searched extensively for the blue 13-by-10 foot tent that Jeffrey Scott Easley purchased at a Salem Walmart on Friday. Surveillance video shows Easley shopping at the store with Brittany, whose 41-year-old mother Tina Smith was found dead in her home Monday.

An arrest warrant for Easley, 32, has been issued for abduction. Warrants previously were issued for credit card fraud and larceny after Easley used Tina Smith's card at Walmart, police have said.

Lavinder said Brittany and Easley were in a retail store around 3 p.m. in San Francisco when someone in the store recognized the pair from reports on their disappearance and called police. Easley did not resist arrest.

Lavinder said there has been no activity on Tina Smith's credit card since that shopping trip as Easley and Brittany seemed to "just drop off the face of the earth" with little money.

Asked if Easley forced Brittany on the cross-country trip, Lavinder said he didn't know.

"We're just getting bits and pieces of the facts right now," he said.

The girl was aware that her mother had been found dead. She had no signs of physical injury.

Lavinder did not know if Easley had any connections to the San Francisco area or how the pair traveled the 2,320 miles to get there. Roanoke authorities planned to travel to California as soon as possible.

After learning that her granddaughter was safe, Liz Dyer told The Roanoke Times: "We're so glad. We're bouncing off the walls.'"

COVERAGE OF BRITTANY MAE SMITH ON CRIMESIDER