Missing Long Island Teen Couple Found ‘Dirty but OK’ in Manhattan After 5-Day Search

A pair of missing Long Island teens were found sitting on a Manhattan subway station bench days after their disappearance on December 9.

Police say Manorville teens Vincent Abolafia, 15, and his girlfriend Kaileigh Catalano, also 15, boarded a Manhattan-bound train at Long Island’s Ronkonkoma train station on Thursday, News 12 Brooklyn reports.  Later in the evening, both teens were reported missing to the Suffolk County Police Department.

The pair left without their cellphones, but with roughly $1,000 cash, Abolafia’s mother Ann Bonasia told NBC New York.

Following a five-day search, Kayleigh’s father, Joe Catalano, found the couple at the 42nd Street-Port Authority subway station on Monday, according to the New York Post. The two, who Joe says have been dating since September, were sitting on a bench on the station’s A train platform.

“I couldn’t f—king believe it,” Joe Catalano told the Post. “I ran over to them and hugged them and then screamed bloody murder for help. 

Nearby New York City Police officers assisted Catalano after he found his daughter and Abolafia.

Joe told the Post the pair was “dirty but OK.”  

The father was searching for the pair in the city and worked off of tips and leads from what he called a “formulated team” of family and friends, the Post reports. “Someone had given a tip,” he said but did not go into further detail.

Abolafia’s mother told NBC New York, “We got a tip that (Kaileigh) took the 5:57 train out of Ronkonkoma and she was in the laundromat section of the train station dying her hair, buying pillows and blankets to prepare for this.”

Abolafia’s Google Chromebook reportedly “pinged” near a Chinatown park in Manhattan, News 12 reports. A Bubba Gump’s waitress says she saw the 15-year-olds in Times Square, but Catalano was donning black hair.

After Joe located the teens, Kayleigh’s mom Ehrin Catalano was notified, and she headed to the city to reunite with the teens.

Ehrin told the Post she had “no idea” what her daughter and Abolafia did during their five-day disappearance. “I am heading into the city right now and I will find all that out,” she added. 

She did speak to her daughter via facetime after her ex-husband located the teens.

“She was just crying, saying, ‘I’m so sorry,'” Ehrin to the Post. “I didn’t even ask any questions yet. I was just crying myself.”

Joe Catalano called the find “a miracle” in his conversation with the Post, and added, “It is the best Christmas gift forever, absolutely.”