INDEPENDENCE, MO. ? A missing 16-year-old girl who was reportedly abducted Tuesday morning has been found unharmed, police said.

“She’s in good physical condition,” Police Chief Lee Bynum said late Tuesday. “She appears to be fine.”

Kelsey Lynn Stelting disappeared around 6:30 a.m. while getting ready for school, said her mother, Kelly Cox, earlier in the day. The softball player was getting a bag of softball bats from the family car and did not return to the house, Cox said.

During a news conference late Tuesday near the teen’s home, Bynum said Stelting walked up to a home in Independence just before 10 p.m. The occupant, whom she did not know, then called police.

Bynum said authorities did not know whether she was dropped off in front of the house, and he declined to speculate about whether she had escaped.

Kelsey Stelting was taken to police headquarters at City Hall and was still being questioned late Tuesday.

No one has been arrested, and law enforcement continued to search late Tuesday for a suspect. The white van that reportedly was linked to the kidnapping was not immediately recovered.

Bynum said he had little information about what took place during the more than 15 hours the teen was missing.

“It’s just too early to have that kind of information,” he said.

FBI spokesman Jeff Lanza said cases of strangers abducting people are uncommon, but when they occur law enforcement has little time to find the victim safely.

“Cases like this don’t often end this way,” he said.

Stelting’s younger brother, Cody, 8, said he was pleased with the outcome as he waited with family and friends for the start of the news conference.

“I felt kind of scared at first, but now I’m kind of happy,” he said.

Earlier, friends and family members hugged and jumped up and down as news of the girl’s safe return spread.

“For a split second you are overjoyed,” said Lisa Wilson, her aunt. “And then fear sets in until they said the words, ‘She’s OK.'”

Based on a 911 call the teen made from her cell phone after she was abducted, Wilson said police believed there was only one kidnapper.

“She doesn’t know where she’s been,” Wilson said. “She’s been driving around all day.”

Her boyfriend of more than two years, Brandon Kelley, a 17-year-old junior, said he was stunned by the news.

“It’s kind of one of those things that melted over you. It finally felt OK,” he said as he stood on the street after visiting the girl’s home.

A friend and neighbor, 16-year-old Lauren Lester, said she cried when she heard the news from a family member. Asked if she felt good, she said, “Oh, yes.”

Earlier in the day, the girl’s stepfather, Doug Cox, told the Independence Daily Reporter that police believed the teen was approached by a man with a gun who told her to run about six blocks to Woods Lumber Co. or she would be killed along with her family.

Bynum said earlier Tuesday that when she got to Woods Lumber, she was told to get into a white van that apparently was waiting at the business.

The van, whose make and model were not known, was last seen going south on U.S. Highway 75 toward Oklahoma, which is only about 15 miles from Independence, population of about 9,400.

Cox said when she went outside to see where her daughter was, the doors to the family’s car were open, with the keys on the ground. Cox said she didn’t see or hear anything before she went outside.

“Shortly after that we called authorities,” Cox said in a telephone interview. “We knew something was wrong right away.”

The family had offered a $50,000 reward for the girl’s safe return.

Dozens had gathered earlier in the evening at the First United Methodist Church, where the girl’s family are members, and the neighboring First Baptist Church to pray for the safe return of the teen. She was described as a good student who was a member of the student council and captain of the dance team.

Another news conference was planned for this morning.