Missing Portland girl, dad found on Warm Springs Reservation

(Update: FBI updates with girl, father found)

A missing Portland 11-year-old girl who the FBI had said was “possibly endangered” was found along with her custodial father Wednesday morning, hitchhiking along Highway 26 on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation, less than a mile from where their pickup was found late last month, officials said.

A few minutes after 10 a.m., a Warm Springs Police detective driving down Highway 26 on the reservation, followed by an FBI agent in a separate car, spotted Kaitlyn Stofiel, 11, and her father, Thomas Clarence Stofiel, 44, hitchhiking about 25 miles west of Warm Springs, said FBI-Portland spokeswoman Beth Anne Steele. The detective brought the pair back to Warm Springs.

“She’s fine,” Steele told NewsChannel 21, adding that the girl was “cold, wet and hungry” and had been placed in protective custody while the Oregon Department of Human Services worked to place her with other family members.

Steele said the Stofiels reported they had spent most of the past two weeks camping in an isolated area a few miles away..

They were found within a mile of where their pickup was found abandoned in late February, about a half-mile down the Mt. Wilson turnoff off of Highway 26, near milepost 76, Steele said.

No charges have been field against Thomas Stofiel, and no charges are expected at this time, Steele, said.

“The FBI and Warm Springs Police Department thank media and the public for helping to spread the word about Kaitlyn’s disappearance,” the FBI statement said.

The two agencies had turned to the public for help last Friday in finding the pair.

They said at the time that “officers and agents simply want to locate Kaitlyn to ensure that she is safe.” .

Neither Thomas nor Kaitlyn Stofiel had any known connection to the reservation, other than the fact that the vehicle was found on the reservation, the agencies said. They were living in Portland most recently, and Kaitlyn was reportedly being home-schooled.

There had been no confirmed sightings of Kaitlyn or Thomas Stofiel in at least a week.

The FBI had said “Thomas Stofiel may be distraught, is known to possess various weapons and reportedly has survival skills.”