An acquaintance from across the country identified Kacie Peterson as the teenager found wandering in Times Square with amnesia on Oct. 2.
The friend from the Pacific Northwest recognized Peterson, 18, of Hansville, Wash., in a CNN story about the girl.
Peterson's father, Henry Peterson, said his daughter had a very hard time after the loss of her mother 11 years ago, reported the New York Post.
"I am totally baffled why she picked up and left," the 64-year-old father said in an interview with the New York Daily News.
Kacie Peterson had gone to live with a friend of her mother's near Seattle but went missing soon after enrolling in high school, according to the Post. Her father said that Kacie had never had mental health problems or dealt with drug and alcohol abuse.
The county sheriff in the town Peterson last lived in said Peterson had one previous episode of amnesia, according to the Post.
Henry Peterson said he was on his way to New York to reunite with his daughter.
