Photos by Marcus Yam | The Roanoke Times

Molicia Tumaline (right) is clutched by Julia Hunter after the 10-year-old returned home after two days. More than 50 detectives, officers and recruits from the Roanoke police had been looking for her.

Lucart Tumaline embraces his 10-year-old daughter Molicia Tumaline, who was last seen early Monday evening and was reported missing. She came back to her father's apartment Wednesday afternoon and was later interviewed by police.

Molicia Tumaline made it only one step into the living room.

Before she could go any further, the 10-year-old was enveloped by cries and hugs and more cries. Her father, seemingly twice her height, crouched and wrapped his arms around her as tears squeezed through his eyelids and a shout blurted out of his mouth.

"We love you, baby," Lucart Tumaline said. "We all love you."

Molicia had been missing since about 6:30 p.m. Monday, and a 40-hour search for her had sprawled over Northwest Roanoke and included more than 50 detectives, officers and recruits from the Roanoke police. Family and police knocked on doors, talked to the girl's friends and brought a bloodhound from almost 100 miles away.

When she came back to her father's apartment about 1:10 p.m. Wednesday, unexpectedly and initially without explanation, her father wrapped Molicia with a white blanket and cradled her on the same couch where he had said he last saw her watching television almost two days earlier.

Within an hour, Molicia was driven from the Park Towne Apartments -- a community tucked on Marr Street between Valley View Mall and Hershberger Road -- to speak downtown with police about her two-day disappearance. Less than three hours later, police spokeswoman Aisha Johnson released a statement:

"An investigation has determined that she ran away from home," it said.

Before heading to police headquarters, Molicia's father talked to television reporters who descended on the apartment when news of her return spread. He said he wasn't sure where Molicia had been while she was gone, and his puffed-up eyelids and his broad smile showed that was not immediately his concern.

"I couldn't eat, drink, eat, sleep or anything like that," Tumaline said. "Just cry and pray that she was OK and was going to come back."

On Tuesday, Tumaline and his girlfriend said it was highly unusual for Molicia to leave the apartment without asking first -- even if she were just going to the playground behind their apartment building, where she often played.

They said she acts older than her age would dictate.

"She's 10, but she is very mature and she acts like she's 15," Tumaline said Tuesday.

Early in the search, authorities sent an automated message to homes in Northwest Roanoke asking for information that could help find Molicia, Johnson said.

Officials canvassed the area, and a bloodhound from the Bland County Correctional Department picked up the girl's scent near places Molicia frequented, such as Huff Lane Elementary School, where she is a student in the fifth grade.

The department did not indicate that the disappearance was criminal during the investigation, but detectives were in contact with an acquaintance of the family who Molicia's family said was a suspect in a past crime against her, Johnson said.

Molicia was being examined at a local hospital, and police continued to investigate the disappearance late Wednesday afternoon.

When Molicia returned, at least, friends and family were only thankful she was safe. Two family friends ran from the sidewalk into the building when Molicia returned and they heard yells drifting from the apartment's windows.

"Oh, she's back!" one woman yelled as she raced into the building. "Thank you, Lord. Thank you."

Staff writer Neil Harvey contributed to this report.