Missing Wash. teen who left cryptic message found safe

Happy Valley, Ore. -A teen from a Vancouver, Washington suburb who hadn't been seen since last month has been found safe, reports CBS affiliate KOIN.

The disappearance of Angelic "Anji" Tracy Dean, 17, garnered national attention after her family said they discovered a note in her journal that read, "If you're reading this, I am either missing or dead."

Detectives reportedly found Dean at the Clackamas Town Center, a shopping mall about 20 miles southwest of her home in Camas, Washington, Wednesday and contacted her inside.

Sgt. Kevin Allais told the station Dean's disappearance is still an "active investigation that includes the crime of human trafficking." In a Facebook message posted Wednesday, Dean's family wrote that she had been "rescued" by police and was "okay this evening."

While she was missing, Dean's parents told KGW that they feared she had become a sex trafficking victim.

Dean vanished June 23 after sending a text message to her boyfriend saying that people had threatened to kill him and her family, reported the Camas-Washougal Post-Record.

Her mother, Lynda Jorgensen, told the Post-Record that Dean had been dealing in recent months with what her family thought might have been teen angst or depression.

"Now we are kind of finding out that there was a different, underlying reason," Jorgensen told the paper. "She had been telling some people for a while that she was involved in something, that she was in over her head, that she was scared. But they couldn't get any more information than that out of her."

A neighbor spotted the girl getting out of a light blue Volvo full of people at her home the day she disappeared, and police were reportedly looking for the driver, described as a black man between 25 to 35 with a goatee.

Police are reportedly still hoping to speak with the man.

Dean, the oldest of four children, had never run away before and had competed as a cheerleader, Jorgensen told the Oregonian. The high school junior left behind her wallet, bank card, make up and glasses, the paper reports.

Friends and family spoke to local and national news outlets, worked with the National Women's Coalition Against Violence and Exploitation, and started a social media campaign to get the word out about Dean's disappearance. The "Help Find Anji" Facebook page has garnered more than 22,000 "likes."

Authorities said they received nearly 150 phone tips and numerous others from social media, reports the station. Allais told the Oregonian that the wide spread sharing of Dean's disappearance led to her safe return.

The family issued a message of thanks on the Facebook page Wednesday, thanking police, the media, the public and the "thousands of people that helped us bring our daughter home."

In another Facebook message posted Wednesday night, they wrote, "We are thrilled to have our daughter back and so thankful she is safe. Many missing children are not so lucky."