By Leon Worden/SCVNEWS.com

A Val Verde girl has been reunited with her mother after turning up in Burbank, officials confirmed Sunday afternoon.
Twelve-year-old Samantha Drew Jones was last seen Friday morning when she left home for Castaic Middle School.

Sheriff’s deputies said she never got on the bus.

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SCV Sheriff’s Sgt. Ron Price said one of the girl’s parents called the SCV Station Sunday at about 11 a.m. to say she had been located in Burbank, and that the family was on the way to pick her up.

Lt. Tom Bryski said the girl’s mother called the station afterward to confirm the two were reunited.

Sheriff’s officials did not know why the child was in Burbank or whether she had relatives there. A user of a website that helps spread the word about missing children suggested she may have ridden her bicycle all the way to Burbank, but that information could not be confirmed.

“They’re back together. That’s what we care about,” Bryski said.