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Woman who connected with Hailey Burns: 'Insanely relieved, insanely shocked'

By Erica Bryant, wsoctv.com
By Erica Bryant, wsoctv.com

For Maisy Baker, it's still hard to believe how she was key to bringing missing Charlotte teen Hailey Burns back home.

“Insanely relieved, insanely shocked and still shocked that all this happened,” Baker said.

Baker is an American student studying in Romania who told Channel 9 she connected with Hailey in a chat room.

Burns was found in a home in Georgia with 31-year-old Michael Ren Wysolovski, who faces multiple felony charges.

After some posts raised red flags over the weekend, Baker knew she had to act.

She questioned Hailey and knew she was in danger and then tracked down her parents on Facebook.

"(Hailey) is insanely brave that she trusted me with the information that she did,” Baker said. “I had Hailey give me some memories that only her family knew and I read those to her mother. They knew that was her.”

Baker said that she felt if she contacted the family first, instead of the tip line, they could get agents to act more quickly, and it worked.

“The efforts of law enforcement on a Saturday night, ready and willing to jump on this lead, was amazing,” said Anthony Burns, Hailey’s father.

With Hailey's parents on the phone, while communicating with Hailey in the chat room for clues about her whereabouts, authorities were directed to her exact location.

“I went from not knowing whether she was alive to her being found in just a matter of hours,” Anthony Burns said.

(EXCLUSIVE: Erica Bryant interviews American woman in Romania who helped locate Hailey Burns)

Now that Hailey is back in Charlotte, Baker is still supportive.

“She is still communicating with me and I'm trying to be as understanding and helpful as I can be from where I am Romania,” Baker said.

A local psychotherapist has never met with Hailey, but said in cases where someone is held hostage, they don't have to be physically detained. The control can be mental.

“In situations where an individual is groomed or there is some evidence of Stockholm syndrome, the captor or authority figure has found a way to psychologically manipulate an individual,” Russell Hancock said.

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