Elizabeth Smart, a 15-year-old American girl abducted from her bedroom at gunpoint nine months ago, was found alive and well on Wednesday, in what her family called "a miracle".
Elizabeth, who was wearing a white veil when she was found by police not far from her home, was reunited with her family at a Salt Lake City police station.
Arrested were a street preacher, Brian David Mitchell, and a female companion named as Wanda Barzee.
"I've had some strong feelings that she was out there," her father Ed Smart said.
"I'm sure she's been through hell," he added after being reunited with his daughter.
Elizabeth was found in a car in Sandy, Utah, 24km from Salt Lake City, with Mitchell and Barzee, after witnesses spotted them in a car and called police.
"We are convinced she was kidnapped," Salt Lake city police chief Rick Dinse said at a news conference.
The girl and her captors had travelled outside Utah and camped out often, Chris Thomas, a family friend, said.
Elizabeth could not have escaped her alleged captors because two people were with her at all times, Thomas said.
Rudy and Nancy Montoya said after they got into their car outside a store in Sandy, they noticed three people walk past them, with a young female in the middle.
"Neither one of us recognised Elizabeth, mainly we recognised Emmanuel," Nancy Montoya said, using Mitchell's street name.
The couple said that "within seconds" they called police.
Elizabeth's disappearance nine months ago stunned her community and much of the country.
Rewards of up to $250 000 (about R2-million) were offered for the girl's safe return.
Her discovery was hailed as a "miracle" by relatives in Salt Lake City, where volunteers had assisted police in one of the most exhaustive manhunts in state history.
The remote area west of Salt Lake City was repeatedly scoured by volunteers.
Elizabeth, who was 14 at the time, was kidnapped from her bedroom on June 5 by a gun-wielding male intruder, while her little sister Mary Katherine, now nine, feigned sleep in the same room.
Investigators renewed the search for Mitchell last month based on descriptions by Mary Katherine of the mysterious, cap-wearing intruder.
She said he resembled Mitchell.
Mitchell had been offered work around the house by the family while asking for hand-outs near a Salt Lake mall.
Police held Richard Ricci, a handyman, who knew the home layout, after the abduction.
Ricci died in jail last August still saying he was innocent. - Reuters