Runaways ‘in love’ found, facing charges

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By Krystle S. Morey

Two Granville teens who reportedly ran away together after stealing a car last Monday will be facing charges.
Jeremy J. Burch, 17, and Isabell V. Winchell, 15, who were a couple, were reported missing last week. They were found by State Police five days later downstate, in Ulster County.
“We knew we’d find them,” said Heather Parker, Winchell’s mother, after the teens were returned home safely.
The pair was reportedly headed to North Carolina – a tip received from one of Burch’s friends – in a stolen 2004 Volvo V70 registered with New York State license plates.
Trooper Mark J. Cepiel said when police learned that the vehicle the teens were driving was stolen, they began searching for it and found the teens in the town of Ulster in Ulster County, about 65 miles south of Albany.
Burch is facing at least two felonies in two different courts after the runaway stunt. He is charged with criminal possession of stolen property in the fourth degree, in relation to the stolen car. He’ll answer to that charge in the Town of Ulster Court on May 10.
Burch is also charged with grand larceny, also relating to the stolen car. He was arraigned on this charge in Granville Town Court by Judge Paul Manchester Monday and remanded to Washington County Jail in lieu of $250 cash bail or $1,000 bond.
Because Burch is under the age of 18, Trooper Cepiel said he can release only the felony charges Birch is facing. Similarly, because Winchell is a minor, Cepiel said he could not release what charges she may be facing.
There are other charges pending, but “those are the charges I can speak about,” he said.
Parker said she and police still do not know why the pair were traveling to North Carolina.
“There’s no reason really, unless they are just not telling us why,” she said.
As for why they ran away, Parker said: “I guess it was just young, puppy love.”
The teens were dating for about a month before they reportedly stole Winchell’s grandmother’s car and left Granville Monday afternoon.
“I realized that she was gone after school on Monday,” Parker said. “I didn’t think she was missing, I just thought she has walked to a girlfriend’s house or something like that after school and just forgot to call me.”
When Parker called Winchell’s dad to see if he had seen her, he said that his parents’ car had been stolen.
“We put two-and-two together,” Parker said.
Parker reported her daughter missing on Monday, April 24. By Tuesday, she became restless and started to feel helpless.
“We had no leads; we had nothing,” she said. That’s when Parker and her eldest daughter made a missing person poster and started sharing it on Facebook.
“You see the posts of missing kids on Facebook all of the time and you feel bad and you share them … but when people started sharing it (the poster with information about her missing daughter) and commenting on it, it really hit home and that’s when I was like, ‘Oh my God … I have a missing child,” Parker said. “I started crying uncontrollably and completely lost it.”
“A parent should never see the face of their child on a missing person poster,” Parker said. “It’s the most gut-wrenching, heartbreaking thing in the world.”
“You see it on TV and say, ‘oh yeah, that will never happen to me,’” Parker said. “And you wonder why the parents are just sitting there doing nothing, but there is literally nothing that you can do.”
She added: “You can’t do anything until you know something.”
The teens were missing for five days. They didn’t contact their parents or use any credit cards or cell phones that would help police track them.
“I need you home. Please call me or something, even if it’s just to say you’re alive,” Parker wrote in a post on social media last week.
Police located the car and the teens in Ulster County and called Parker.
“I was in my best friend’s car … and we both just screamed,” she said, regarding her reaction to the teens being found.
Parker couldn’t express enough how happy she was to have her daughter safe and back home.
“It was definitely a relief moment,” Parker said.
When her daughter was classified by police as a runaway, Parker said her parenting was called into question by critics on social media.
“I have absolutely no regrets as far as my parenting is concerned,” Parker said. “There were no issues or anything at home that made her want to leave.”
Parker said her daughter, whom she raised to be strong and independent, was caught up with “love.”
“She felt safe and felt she could handle it and she was going to be fine,” Parker said.
Upon returning home, Winchell stayed with her father for a couple of days, Parker said, but was set to return home with her mother this week.
“Just from talking to her and being with her since she’s been home, she’s full of regret and remorse,” she said of her daughter.
“I would never wish this on my worst enemy and I would never want to go through it again,” Parker said.