Katie Hong, Fremont, California teen girl found safe and unharmed after going missing for 2 weeks after saying she was voluntarily leaving to join group she met online.
A 16 year old California teen girl who had been missing since July 25 was found safe and unharmed, Fremont police announced, Thursday afternoon.
Katie Hong was last seen around 6:20 p.m. on July 25 at her home on Queens Park Court, near Rix Park, police said. Surveillance video later captured her walking through a gas station at the corner of Blacow Road and Grimmer Boulevard, heading toward Irvington Community Park.
Police said Katie left behind a note for her family, indicating she may have run away to meet people she had connected with online. Investigators said the note indicated she only knew these associates by their online screen names, and that they would not share their real names.
‘We are relieved to share that missing juvenile Katie Hong has been located this afternoon (August 7, 2025),’ police said in a post shared on X. ‘She is unharmed and safe, pending to be reunited with her family. We are grateful for everyone’s support and assistance during the search. More details will be shared as they become available.’
Police have not shared any other details about where she was found or the circumstances around her disappearance.
Not immediately clear is what prompted the teen girl to want to leave her family home, the identities of the individuals she had met online, how she came to meet them online and how it came that they offered her recourse to leave and stay with them. Along with Hong’s general whereabouts for the nearly two weeks she was gone.
Of note, the safe discovery comes after the girl’s parents said earlier this week that they were looking to hire a private investigator as they searched for her according to KTVU.
Hong’s parents, who are both deaf, said she may believe she disappointed them. ‘She feels that she has disappointed us. Though we don’t agree. We are not disappointed with her. Yes, she made a mistake. But everyone does,‘ said her father, Sulghi Hong, KTVU reported.
‘She could be with somebody still, she could be by herself, she could be at a shelter,’ her uncle, James Han, told KTVU. ‘We don’t know who, we don’t know what, we don’t know where or what their motive is.’
The family had set up a fundraiser to help cover potential expenses in the ongoing search for Katie.
‘Praise God! We just got word that the police found Katie!’ read an update to the GoFundMe. ‘Safe and unharmed! So grateful! Thank you all! This would not have been possible without you.’
The fundraiser as of Thursday night had raised over $70K.
Katie had previously been described as being 5 feet tall and weighing about 100 pounds, brown hair, brown eyes, and braces, and was last seen wearing a navy blue zip-up jacket and gray sweatpants. She was also carrying a red Patagonia backpack that may have contained a laptop computer.
