Lancaster County Runaway Mom Speaks Out To Dr. Phil
by Molly Daly
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Brenda Heist, the Lancaster County woman who resurfaced in Florida last month 11 years after she disappeared, talked to Doctor Phil McGraw in an interview broadcasted Monday on CBS3.
Brenda Heist was going through an amicable divorce when she says she hitchhiked to Florida with a group of homeless people, leaving her two children and Lititz home behind. Looking drawn and older than her years, clad in an orange prison jumpsuit, Heist jiggled her legs as she tried to explain why she ran.
"I was going to have to move, and get a place big enough for me and the two kids - I was going to have primary custody of the kids," said Heist. "I had asked for a raise at work a couple of weeks before that, and I didn't get that, and then I thought, well, I'll try for this assistance, and they turned me down, just... I don't know, it was just, just too much, you know, I just couldn't...I don't know. I don't know."
Heist appeared to cry often throughout the interview, but for the most part, her eyes remained dry.
