"I appreciate everybody's help. All the police staff. Everybody. I appreciate it. God is a good God," Shawana Brunson said.
Around 3:30 p.m. the two girls came home as if nothing had happened.
Four-year-old Shaylenn Brunson was startled and somewhat bewildered. Her older sister, 12-year-old Shawana Brunson, had some questions to answer.
Both assured everyone that they were alright.
Their grandmother, an hour earlier, was begging for their safe return.
Investigators said the girls went missing from the Forest Houses on Trinity Avenue in the Morrisania section of the Bronx sometime overnight.
Their mother tucked them in for bed, in their fifth floor apartment at 1020 Trinity Avenue, just before 10:00 p.m.
When the mother, Shawana Brunson, woke up suddenly at 4:30 a.m., she went to check on them and discovered both children were gone.
Brunson panicked and called police
Officers and K-9 dogs searched the area. They fanned out in the neighborhood with pictures of the girls.
Police said Shawana has run away before, but had never taken her four year old sister Shaylenn.
