Photo By: PAUL LAMISON/News Channel 8

By LINDSAY WILKES-EDRINGTON The Tampa Tribune

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ST. PETERSBURG - Jennifer Mee, known around the world this year for her unstoppable hiccups, was found by her mother at Fossil Park on Monday night, St. Petersburg police said.

Before Mee went missing, she told two of her sisters that she wanted to run away.

Mee was reported missing to St. Petersburg police at 7:05 a.m. Monday by her mother, Rachel Robidoux. Mee was found unharmed at 10 p.m., police said.

She was last seen by her sisters, Ashley McCauley and Kayla Robidoux, about 8:15 p.m. Sunday.

McCauley said Mee mentioned earlier that day that one of her friends ran away last week and that she planned to do the same soon.

“She said that he was the first one and that she’d be next,” McCauley, 14, said in an interview before her sister was found.

St. Petersburg Police Department public information officer George Kajtsa said an alert on Mee’s disappearance was sent to law enforcement agencies across the state Monday morning. He said officers would search places where teenagers usually gather and stop young girls who met Mee’s profile.

Rachel Robidoux said earlier Monday that she knew something was wrong when her daughter wasn’t home before it got dark outside.

“She knew she was supposed to come home then, and we kept waiting and waiting and waiting,” Robidoux said.

Mee did not have her purse or cell phone with her when she was gone.

“I think it is a combination of things,” said Robidoux, speaking about her daughter’s disappearance hours before the teen was found. “Her notoriety, being a teenage girl, and some of the medications she is on.”

Mee first gained attention in late January, when her hiccups started. At the time, they were occurring close to 50 times each waking minute and continued for more than five weeks.

Robidoux said Mee’s hiccups have slowed considerably, but that she does get hourlong bouts every few days. She said Mee is taking three types of pills to help suppress them.

Since her daughter became famous, Robidoux said, she has felt entitled to more privileges.

“She’s definitely changed,” Robidoux said. “She wants what she wants when she wants it, and she doesn’t think she should get in trouble.”

Mee, who will enter 10th grade at Northeast High next school year, hasn’t been back to class since her hiccups started again March 15. She finished up work for tutors in May, and since then, her mother said, she has been hanging out with friends and applying for jobs. On July 28 - the day she turns 16 - Mee is supposed to start working at KFC.

Reporter Lindsay Wilkes-Edrington can be reached at (813) 259-7621 or lwilkes-edrington@tampatrib.com.

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