*Missing Woodstock woman found safe

Katalina Mikitarian

By Preston Knight -- pknight@nvdaily.com

WOODSTOCK -- Friends and family of Katalina Mikitarian, 21, are celebrating her being found safe Monday morning after being missing for a week.

Lisa Mikitarian, the woman's mother, has yet to speak to her daughter or the family she has been staying with, but is "pretty confident" Katalina is safe and the one who phoned a family friend Monday.

The woman was dropped off at the Richmond Greyhound station on May 9 after being unexpectedly sent home from a program she was attending. Her ticket was for Charlottesville, but she was never found at the station in that city, and her parents did not have prior notice of her expulsion.

Mikitarian said Katalina wound up with a Christian family and had no idea people were looking for her until seeing a television report Monday morning in Charlottesville. She contacted a friend's mother, who then contacted Lisa Mikitarian.

Mikitarian said her daughter wanted to find a job to prove she could be independent before coming home.

"She didn't want to come home under a cloud of embarrassment that she's faced," she said.

Mikitarian said her daughter may call her Monday night.

"There could not be a better resolution," she said.

A Facebook page, "Finding Katalina," has already received dozens of responses celebrating the news.

For further developments visit nvdaily.com or read the print edition of The Northern Virginia Daily.