Calah Waskow, 15, was thought to have been kidnapped after she disappeared from her parents' Georgia home on December 4, authorities said.
A Georgia teen is speaking out after running away with a man more than twice her age, telling Dr. Phil McGraw that she made a mistake and said she “should have just stayed home."
Calah Waskow, 15, was thought to have been kidnapped after she disappeared from her parents’ Evans home on December 4, authorities said.
But in an exclusive interview with Dr. Phil, Waskow said that she had voluntarily left with a friend's 37-year-old father, Jason Johnson.
The teen was found about 200 miles from home in Tennessee.
Though she claimed she went willingly, Waskow said the decision was a mistake, telling Dr. Phil: "Me being 15, I made the mistake of putting my life, and trying to be grown, into a man who is a 37-year-old adult — old enough to be my father — putting everything in his hands whenever I’m supposed to be at home with my mother."
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Though Waskow said the relationship was consensual, she said she wants to share her story to raise awareness.
“I want people who are in or think they can be in an older relationship with somebody and get away with it.
"It's illegal and wrong,” she added. "It's illegal for a reason.”
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