UPDATE: Runaway girls held in detention

The odyssey of two teenage sisters found safe in Winnemucca nine days after they ran away from their Gardnerville Ranchos home isn't over yet.

The 15- and 13-year-old sisters are being held in the Douglas County juvenile detention center at Stateline pending a hearing Sept. 2.

Wearing county-issued burgundy polo shirts and khaki pants, the sisters appeared Tuesday before District Judge Michael Gibbons, with their parents.

The girls ran away Aug. 16, accepting a ride with 40-year-old Jeffery Alan Palmer of Gardnerville who was jailed in California on felony child abduction charges on $120,000 bail.

The names of the girls have since been removed from this story in light of new charges brought against Palmer on Aug. 29.

They were found in a Manteca, Calif., motel early Aug. 18 with Palmer and a 16-year-old boy of Manteca whom one of the sisters had traveled to see. The sisters ran away again from a safe house where they were sent to await their parents. The boy ran away from home a second time.

The three runaways were seen Aug. 19 at a California truck stop looking for rides.

Their parents spent last next week handing out fliers and looking for their children in Las Vegas.

The sisters and the boy were found Monday sleeping behind a truck stop in Winnemucca by Carson Valley Christian center youth pastor Jeremy Malekos and his father David who headed for Humboldt County on a tip the three had been seen in the area.

The girls' mother said relief that her daughters were safe was tempered with the fear the girls would take off again. She asked Gibbons to keep them in detention pending next week's hearing.

The 15-year-old was charged with a probation violation.

"As much as I would like to see (her) come home, she doesn't want to come home," the mother told the judge. "I don't think she is repentant. She laughed at me when I told her how concerned everybody was. I have no security right now. If we were to take these two girls home, I can't say we wouldn't face the same situation tonight."

Juvenile Probation Officer Mike Torres agreed with the parents' assessment.

"They treat it like a funny joke," he said. "I was with them when they were reunited and the girls didn't even want to hug their parents. It's important before they are released that we have a good plan to assure their safety."

The girls disputed the claim that they didn't take their behavior seriously.

"I think we both understand," The 15-year-old said. "We don't think it's a big joke."

Gibbons found that the girls were a danger to themselves and ordered them held in detention pending next week's hearing.

Chief Deputy Juvenile Probation Officer Vicky Sauer-Lamb said the teenagers had been interviewed by Douglas County authorities and Palmer may face local charges. She said a San Joaquin detective was planning to travel to Douglas County to interview the girls.

"I really don't even have the energy now to be angry with or vindictive towards this man," the girls' mother said. "I have to trust the system to do its job with him."

She said it would be "humanly impossible" to thank all the people who helped locate the girls.

"We are grateful from the bottom of our hearts," she said. "An enormous amount of work and prayer went into this from many people including, churches, law enforcement, friends, schools and family.

"We feel extremely blessed to live in Douglas County, in area that cares so much about our kids," she said. "We have been a lot of places over the past nine days, and, believe me, we have it good here."