The 16-year-old schoolgirl who had been missing from her Dublin home since last Friday was reunited with her mother yesterday afternoon after she turned up in Co Mayo.
Ms Laura Dunne from Woodside in Clontarf was brought to Castlebar Garda station by a female friend about 11 a.m. following appeals for information on her whereabouts.
Gardaí feared she had gone abroad after she disappeared with her passport, clothes and several hundred euros. A trawl of her computer records also indicated she had been in regular contact with a number of strangers, including somebody living abroad, whom she met through an Internet chat-room.
Det Sgt Willie McKenna of Clontarf station, who led the inquiry into her disappearance, said the girl was physically fine but a bit tired. He said she was reunited with her mother, Ms Mary Lynam, at Clontarf station at 4 p.m.
"It's great to see her back with her mother and hopefully they can sort out whatever difficulties were there and get on with their lives," he said.
Det Sgt McKenna said the Garda investigation into her disappearance would continue and gardaí would seek in coming days to interview the schoolgirl and people with whom she spent time.
"We want to trace her movements from the time she left home," he said. He indicated there was a possibility she may have met the people with whom she stayed in Mayo through the Internet and cautioned parents to be alert to the dangers of children using computers unsupervised.