Mum declared dead looked unrecognisable when she turned up alive 11 years later

A woman who mysteriously vanished after dropping her kids off at school was found alive more than a decade later - and she had quite the story to tell.

Brenda Heist was declared legally dead in 2011, nine years after she disappeared without a trace in February 2002.

But she managed to stun US investigators in May 2013 after turning up at a police station to hand herself in, saying she had reached 'the end of her rope'.

Heist's disappearance in Lititz, Pennsylvania, sparked a huge probe which led to cops looking into her former husband Lee as a suspect, however, it later emerged she had vanished off her own volition.

The then-42-year-old dropped her son and daughter off at school on the morning of 8 February, 2002, and by the time they got home, she had gone.

The mother-of-two dropped her kids off at school - and then disappeared (Today Show)

After the alarm was raised, police tracked down her car but found that none of her personal belongings had been taken.

The trail then went cold for 11 years, despite the best efforts of authorities to find the missing mum.

Detectives had initially put her husband at the time, Lee Heist, down as a suspect in her disappearance, before he was cleared of any involvement.

He previously told how he was left in a hefty financial predicament after Heist went AWOL, leading to him losing his home and having to leave his job while raising their two kids.

Lee went on to remarry and managed to convince the courts to declare the mother of his children as legally dead - only for Heist to suddenly resurface in 2013.

Heist then turned up in Florida more than a decade later (Lititz Borough Police)

At the age of 53, the missing woman walked into a police station in Key Largo, Florida, to address some outstanding warrants, while announcing that authorities might be looking for her.

She informed detectives that she was a missing person who had adopted a different name after her disappearance.

Heist then explained that she had been homeless for the last two years, was living in a 'tent community' and had grown tired of the circumstances she was enduring.

So, she revealed all to Lititz Borough Police Det. John Schofield, disclosing what she had been up to since she left the state of Pennsylvania.

Suggesting she 'just snapped', he said that the mum told him she made a 'split-second decision', adding: "She doesn't know why she did it. She just left."

'She was tired of running'

Heist told police that back in 2002, she had been going through an amicable divorce with Lee - but was worried about her future.

The mum, who had been working as a bookkeeper at a car dealership, said she had been left at a loss after being turned down for housing support, which resulted in her sobbing in a local park.

Two women and a man then approached her to offer some comfort, before inviting her to join them on a month-long hitchhiking journey to South Florida...and she obliged.

Heist claimed that she had spent around seven years living in a camper van with a bloke, while working odd jobs, before she ended up later sleeping under bridges, scavenging food from bins and begging on the streets.

Schofield told reporters in 2013 of why she returned: "She said she was at the end of her rope, she was tired of running."

Heist was placed in 'protective custody' after handing herself in, before she was later put behind bars in relation to the outstanding warrants against her.

She told cops that she had become 'tired of running' (Today Show)

Discussing the impact of her disappearance on his family, Lee said at a press conference in wake of her return: "We experienced the loss of a house and car, a job, and unemployment for over a year and a half.

"Meaning we lost everything, we moved into assisted housing…It was not an easy issue."

In 2013, Heist publicly apologised to her children while speaking to Dr Phil, saying: "I would like their forgiveness, but I'm going to have hard time forgiving myself for what I've done."

At the time, her daughter Morgan said she wasn't interested in a 'sob story' and that she and her brother were 'not ready yet' to reunite with their mum.

"We don't think she should have contact with us," Morgan added. "There's no reason for her to. She doesn't deserve it."

It is unclear whether the children ever reunited with their mother.

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