Brenda Heist has been found. The missing Pennsylvania woman declared dead in 2010 and has surfaced alive in Florida.

11 years ago, Brenda Heist dropped her children off at school. She was never heard from again. Brenda Heist was found in Florida this week. She told police she spontaneously hitch-hiked there with homeless people she met because she was unhappy with her life.

Brenda Heist, 54, had been declared legally dead. A detective from the Lititz Borough Police Department, John Schofield, met with Heist on Monday in Florida. He told press she apologized and expressed feeling ashamed. "She said she was at the end of her rope, she was tired of running," Schofield said.

Heist said she survived by panhandling, scavenging in trashcans, and sleeping under bridges and along highways.

In 2002, Brenda Heist was going through a divorce and financial problems that lead to depression. She had been turned down for housing assistance and was crying in a park when three people, a man and two women, befriended her. They asked her to come along as they spent a month hitchhiking to South Florida, and on a whim, Heist accepted their invitation. 

She left dinner half-cooked and laundry in the washer. Her car was found, but no other traces ever surfaced.

On Friday, Brenda Heist turned herself in to Monroe County sheriff's deputies in Key Largo, Fla. Heist told them that she was a missing person, but was on probation due to a recent arrest under a different name. The nature of those charges was not initially clear, but Heist remains in custody. Schofield said Heist didn't have computer access, so she'd never checked to see if her husband was looking for her but assumed he may have been.

Brenda Heist had been homeless for the past two years. Most recently, she lived in a tent community; for about seven years, she lived in Key West with a man in a camper, working odd jobs.

Her ex-husband, Lee Heist, has remarried. He got courts to declare Heist legally dead in 2010, then collected on a life insurance policy. He reports being upset at the effect their mother's disappearance had on his children. During the investigation following Heist's disappearance, he was seen as a suspect but eventually cleared. "There were people in the neighborhood who would not allow their children to play with my children" because he was a suspect, Lee Heist told reporters. After Brenda left, the family continued to struggle financially; Lee quit his job and eventually lost his home. When Schofield called, he assumed the news was that Brenda Heist's remains were found.

"She has a birth certificate and a death certificate, so she's got a long ways to make this right again," Schofield said. "She's got to take it slow with her family, I'm sure, and it's going to be a long process."

When Heist is released from custody, she plans to spend time with her brother in Florida then move in with her mother in Texas. She has expressed a desire to speak to her children and ex-husband, but restoring a relationship may be a slow process.