A missing Deltona woman authorities have been searching for since Friday ran and hid from search parties because "she was paranoid and feared someone else was looking for her," an official said.
Nikki Shriver, 30, was found this morning near where her abandoned pickup had been located, said Volusia County Sheriff's Office spokesman Andrew Gant.
"Early this morning, members of the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office East Side Detective Unit resumed the search for Nikki Shriver and found her in Tiger Bay State Forest," Gant said.
During an initial interview with Shriver, Gant said she told detectives she has some "survivalist background and has spent time in the woods in the past."
Shriver was taken to Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach for evaluation, but no major injuries were evident, Gant said.
Due to her level of exhaustion the interview was brief, Gant said.
Authorities have been searching for Shriver, 30, since she called 9-1-1 around 5 a.m. Friday to report that her pickup was stuck in the Tiger Bay Wildlife Management Area near Daytona Beach, the Volusia County Sheriff's Office said.
Her truck was found Friday afternoon by officers from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Since then, members of the Volusia County Sheriff's Office, Air 1 and VCSO K-9, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Division of Forestry have all been searching. An airboat was sent out Sunday to search in a canal along U.S. 92, officials said.
Detectives returned to the woods early Tuesday morning near where Shriver went missing and turned on their sirens, Gant said. Around 5:26 a.m., she was spotted.
"Shriver came out from a wooded area about a mile south of the location where her vehicle was stuck," Gant said.
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