The Virginia Beach Police Department tweeted on Wednesday afternoon that the missing Virginia Beach woman and her two children have been found safe in a nearby state. According to a news release from the city, investigators were able to determine that Monica Lamping left the state on her own free will.
“We’re so happy right now. We are ecstatic. They’re safe and my son is happy and alive,” said ex-husband Kevin Lamping and father of 7-year-old Kai Lamping.
Staff at Landstown Elementary School where Kai is a first grader are also relieved to know that he and his family are safe, said Principal Jeffrey Hofmann.
“We’re ecstatic that (Kai) was found safe and are anxiously awaiting his return to school,” Hofmann said.
Police had been searching for the mother and her two children since the weekend. On Saturday afternoon Monica Lamping dropped her children off at a friend’s house and went on a date with a man she’d met at a gas station named Chad, Kevin Lamping said. The green Jeep Cherokee Monica Lamping was driving was last seen traveling through the Portsmouth Downtown Tunnel around 2 a.m. on Sunday.
The last time Monica Lamping was heard from was around midnight on Sunday when she texted her roommate and asked if she would be coming home that night, Kevin Lamping said.
The 29-year-old woman and her two children were reported missing by her parents on Sunday morning, just hours after a house fire at her home was extinguished by firefighters. A news release from the Virginia Beach Fire department said that no one was in the house at the time of the fire. The cause of the fire was not deemed suspicious and is believed to have been started by a space heater that was left on.
“It’s still too early in the investigation to know anything,” said Virginia Beach Fire Department spokesman Art Kohn.
No one has been charged in Monica Lamping’s disappearance and police involvement has ended, said Master Police Officer Linda Kuehn.
“There’s nothing illegal about being missing,” Kuehn said. “She’s fine. The kids are fine.”
