Eleven years ago, Brenda Heist dropped her two children off at school in Lititz, Pennsylvania and then disappeared. Her ex-husband, Lee Heist, who police initially considered a suspect in her disappearance, had her declared legally dead 9 years later. Since then, Brenda’s two children have attended college and Lee has remarried.
This week Breanda Heist resurfaced alive in Florida. After she turned herself in for outstanding warrants in Key Largo, she told a sheriff’s deputy of her decade-long-plus secret. After being contacted, Lititz Borough Police Det. John Schofield visited Heist in Florida on Monday and recounted the story she shared with him about her disappearance.
According to Schofield, Heist stated she was going through a divorce from Lee at the time. A judge had recently ruled that she was ineligible for housing assistance and this decision, she claimed, sent her into a depression. She made her way to an area park to cry when she met 3 homeless people who invited her on a hitch-hiking trip to Florida. She accepted the offer and has been living in South Florida ever since under a false alias. She said she’s been living in trailers and under bridges and has resorted to panhandling and scavenging to survive.
Lee hasn’t taken the news of the mother of his children’s resurfacing very well. In a press conference he reminded everyone that many assumed he was the one responsible for her disappearance and that, “There were people in the neighborhood who would not allow their children to play with my children.” He did state that his now-grown kids have expressed a desire to communicate with their mom.
Schofield said, “She has a birth certificate and a death certificate so she’s got a long ways to make this right again. She’s got to take it slow with her family, I’m sure, and it’s going to be a long process.”
Once she’s released from Monroe County, Heist intends on returning to the place and the people she voluntarily abandoned so many years ago.
