Missing Mother & Daughter Found

A missing Missouri woman police thought was in danger, was arrested early Tuesday morning and is accused of making the entire story up.Law enforcement from across the state were looking for Rachel Koechner and her four year old daughter for almost a week. She had told family members she needed help and was with her ex-husband, who had a violent past.Early Monday morning police were able to track down the trio in Linn County where Koechner admitted to using fake pot and lying to her family and police.Koechner’s family told ABC 17 News they were just as blind sided as the police. “We are hurt confused still not understanding why,” said Brandi Koechner who is Rachel Koechner’s sister. After spending days worrying whether a mother and child would be okay, emotions from learning the truth are running high at home. “It really hurt… not understanding a bit of it,” Brandi Koechner.While confusion is understandable among family, police currently know Koechner planned to run away with her ex-husband. According to court documents she stole hundreds of dollars from her boyfriend to buy synthetic pot, and took off Thursday morning. At that point she sent a text to her family saying she needed help. “We had to assume she was in danger because it said help me,” said Brandi Koechner.After the text police across the state scoured cities to try and save the mother and daughter. At that point they did not know the only risk may have been Koechner herself and the synthetic drugs she may have taken. “If there was drug activity going on the little girl was in danger I would say,” said Chariton County Sheriff Chris Hughes.On Monday Koechner called her boyfriend from Kansas City and said she was okay, but then lied to police. “I spoke with her and asked if everything was okay, she said no I said are you in danger and she said yes,” said Hughes.Once police caught the trio she admitted she was never in danger and was just trying to put her family back together. The four year old was taken by child services and is currently with Koechner’s family. They said she is doing well and they also wanted to thank everyone who tried to help in the situation.Koechner is facing a misdemeanor charge for filing a false report. The Chariton County Sheriffs Department said they also want to seek repayment for all the money spent on her case.