ESCONDIDO, Calif. -- A 14-year-old North County girl reported missing this week turned up unharmed thousands of miles away from home Monday in the company of a Midwestern man she apparently met via the Internet, authorities reported.

The girl was located at the South Dakota home of 34-year-old Charles Leroy Crowell, according to police.

"It was such a relief," the girl's mother, Jane Alshuler, told a local TV station. "The lieutenant from Escondido police called me and just told me right off the bat that they had her."

Crowell, who apparently had communicated with the girl online for some time, took a flight last week to San Diego, where he checked into a budget motel on Thursday, according to investigators.

The following day, according to police, the teen's parents stopped her from taking a cab to meet with the man. On Sunday morning, they realized that she had gone missing.

When authorities caught up with the teen in Sioux Falls, S.D., she told them Crowell had done her no harm, Escondido police Lt. David Mankin said.

"She stated that she was uninjured, (that) she was fine," Mankin told reporters. "He went voluntarily ... to their police headquarters for an interview."

The suspect is likely to face state and federal charges of some kind, the lieutenant said.