Missing Post Falls teen turns up in Spokane

A missing Post Falls teenager has been found after the runaway started contacting friends through her MySpace account from a public library computer. Spokane police on Saturday located 15-year-old Charleen Cooper, and she has been returned to her family, Lt. Greg McLean said.

Cooper ran away from her Post Falls home April 7 and had been listed as an endangered runaway. Post Falls officials had feared that Cooper could have become a victim of a serious crime.

McLean said memories remain strong of the case eight years ago involving 14-year-old Carissa Benway. The runaway, who sometimes lived in Post Falls, was kidnapped and taken to a remote North Idaho campsite on July 4, 2000, where she was raped and decapitated.

The killer, David “Coon” Merritt, died in prison in 2006 after he was convicted of killing Benway.

“That’s why we put so much time and effort into this,” McLean said. “We didn’t want a duplication.”

Cooper was found through her use of a computer.

“She was communicating with some friends on her MySpace account from the public library. She was doing it from different locations, but mostly it was from the public library,” McLean said.

Post Falls police alerted their counterparts in Spokane, who found Cooper on Saturday, McLean said.