Two Missing Teenage Girls Found Safe

After a grueling night of searches, the two missing Florida high school girls have reportedly been found in a heavily wooded and swampy area near the resort where they were staying.

This report comes after the two girls, Brocha Katz and Rivka Moshe, both 16-years-old and students in Lubavitch Education Center’s Beis Chana High School, have gone missing on Saturday afternoon after going out of a walk.

The girls were in the Caribe Cove Resort by Wyndham in Orlando, Florida, together with their high school for their annual Shabbaton.

A large scale search, headed by the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, involved multiple state agencies, including the local police and Florida State Police along with numerous volunteer organizations.

According to multiple reports, a helicopter spotted two girls in waist-deep water and in a heavily-wooded and swampy area near the resort where they had gone missing from. The pair were seen waving frantically to the helicopter. Rescue personal could not get close by air, and have sent in rescuers by foot.

After nearly 30 minutes from when they were first spotted by the helicopter, came the good news that they are indeed confirmed to be the missing girls.

Rescue personnel are hard at work pushing through the dense foliage, with the aid of chainsaws, machetes and riding All Terrain Vehicles in an effort to reach the two girls and get them out of the forest. “They needed to use chainsaws and machetes to get through the thick brush in order to reach the two girls,” said a source involved in the rescue efforts.

“We are currently in communication with them and hope to reach them soon,” said the source.

Finally, at 12:55pm rescue personal exited the forest together with the two missing girls. They were reunited with their waiting families and immediately placed inside waiting ambulances and taken to a nearby hospital for checkups and evaluations. They appear to be in ok health, only suffering from exhaustion and dehydration, despite the adverse conditions they have been in throughout the night.

“They’re out of the forest and in the ambulance” said Devorah Katz Shor, the sister of one of the missing girls, “Thank you to the police, Hatzala and every volunteer, every person who offered to volunteer, every person who said tehillim, all the schools and kids that Davened, all the special tehillim groups, hakhel events, letters to the rebbe and other rabbeim of all groups, every person who stayed up all night praying, reaching out, sending support of all types.

“This miracle couldn’t have been brought about without your efforts. I’ve seen the amazing things that we can do as a nation, a people and a family. I’ve been a part of it. But to now be on the receiving end I see so much more how amazing klal yisrael is.

“Thank you from the bottom of our hearts and may we all have only good news to share from now on.”

This story has been updated to reflect the most recent known information

fl missing girls 13 fl missing girls 14 fl missing girls 15

fl missing girls 6 fl missing girls 7 fl missing girls 8 fl missing girls 9

fl missing girls 1 fl missing girls 2 fl missing girls 3 fl missing girls 4 fl missing girls 5

34 Comments

  • ב''ה ב''ה

    חסדי ה’ כי לא תמנו

    חודש ניסן, ניסי ניסים

    • Shayna

      Right, because that is what’s important here. Thank goodness there are people like you to remind others of their halachuc duties.

    • CH'er

      yes Havdala is important…

      but lets step back and look at the whole picture,,

      2 young teenagers, get stuck in a 4-6 ft swamp in central Fl over night. petrified not knowing whats there, alligators snakes,,,,,,, etc. death hit them in the face,

      but hold on before recuperating or eating. (one cant halachikaly eat or drink before lets make Havdala,

      yup good point there,

      may they use this time of horror to praise Hashem for the gift of life,,, the gift of realization how precious life is,,

      Refuah shelaima hatzlacha meruba. a Kosherin Frailichin Pesach

    • GoAspie!

      Why are we criticizing?
      (S?)he didn’t say “first thing before anything, hear Havdalah”.
      No, obviously sing, dance, go to hospital, etc, but why just avoid halachic obligation stam because of this? On the contrary, this should be even more of a reason to do so. (“Hashem, we are so gracious that you rescued us, let us not now ignore a mitzvah…Hey Menacham Mendel, can you please make Havdalah for us?”)
      As I mentioned below, Yaakov Avinu didn’t even hug/kiss his beloved Yosef right away because he wanted to say Shema (whether because it was zman or to concretize his hakaros hatov for Hashem).
      Yes, this advice may be a bit ‘suddenly pragmatic’, but it’s not wrong.

  • number 3

    you’re right but still crazy. is that all you were able to think of????

  • Yitta

    Thank Hashem they are ok, but why did police need machetes and chainsaws to reach them??? How did the girls get into the swamp unaided??? Something is not right here.

    • Milhouse

      That’s a silly question. It’s obviously a lot easier to get lost than to deliberately find ones way to a specific place.

  • GoAspie!

    Rock on, number 3!
    You’re absolutely right.

    Number 13(Joey?), Yaakov Avinu didn’t even hug Yosef when he first saw him after all that time because it was Zman Krias Shema.

  • S.B

    b’h

    Our heartfelt tefillos and Tehillim, our achdus, no doubt helped to bring about this great miracle.

    As the details unfold – we will probably hear of more miracles, in this month of multiple miracles.
    Just one example we heard – the weather was too cold for the crocodiles to venture out..

    May this be a harbinger of our immediate “rescue” from golus, now!

    • Anonymous

      Harbinger?…Uh. Just get on a plane and come home… It’s pretty simple. Israel is waiting for her observant jews to come perform their mitzvote in the holy land.

    • Milhouse

      Flying to Israel doesn’t get anyone out of golus. On the contrary, the golus in Israel is deeper and darker — חושך כפול ומכופל. We didn’t go into golus by our own power, and we won’t get out of it that way either.

  • Flatbush

    הודו לה כי טוב כי לעולם חסדו
    Grateful ,relieved and elated

  • Esty B

    They must have been terrified. So happy they’re safely returned to their families. Very curious to know how they became lost.

  • Anonymous

    B”H. Thank god and thank all volunteers for taking the time to help out

  • no one special

    Is the “miracle” that they got into the water without having to use chain-saws?

  • Lisa Fullerton

    I am so happy they are safe. I am always worried when my girls go on Shabbatons. There is always the danger of them wandering off.