A 15-year-old California girl who has been missing since Dec. 14 was found alive in Honolulu on Tuesday and her parents believe she was lured to the island by a man on the Internet.

Henry Veloza of Hayward, Calif., said yesterday that he wasn't sure how his daughter, Kimberly Meixsell-Veloza, wound up here, but he said he knows she didn't get to Hawai'i without help. Kimberly's mother, Elizabeth, flew to Honolulu yesterday and they are scheduled to return home today.

Henry Veloza said Kimberly disappeared last week after she said she was going to school. But the girl never showed up for classes, and when she did not return home the night of Dec. 14 he began to worry.

The Velozas checked out her usual hangouts, but found nothing. That night they reported her missing to police and the next day contacted several missing children's alliances. Henry Vel-oza acknowledged that Kimberly has had problems at home and at school and had run away before, but was found within a few hours.

"We were putting posters out. Before the end of last week I probably had her flier out to 500-600 people across the United States. I was hitting up all the local news agencies here," Henry Veloza said from his home yesterday.

The couple checked phone records and called numbers they didn't recognize. A Hayward police officer and Elizabeth Veloza noticed a Hawai'i number and called it with no luck.

But on Tuesday, the O'ahu man called back and asked the Velozas for a poster of their daughter so he could help in the search. An hour later, the Velozas got a second call from Hawai'i.

"I get a magic phone call from my daughter. She said she was in Hawai'i," Henry Veloza said.

Kimberly told her father that she was fine and that she didn't want to come home. She said she had been welcomed into the home of a man, his wife and child.

Veloza said her daughter told him she was "tired of the home life" and that she "liked these people and they like me, and they said they'll take care of me."

Veloza declined to name the family. He said he doesn't believe her daughter's story that she saved for the trip. Veloza said he also doesn't buy the O'ahu man's version that he befriended Kimberly at an airport in California.

"What he tried to tell me as to how he ran into her sounds like hogwash, that he and his wife just happened to be at the airport, saw this kid sitting there, claimed they didn't know who she was, walked up to her and said, 'Is everything all right?' " Veloza said. The man claimed that Kimberly said she was "just hanging out" and that she had nowhere to go, Veloza said.

At that point, the man said he asked if she wanted to come to Hawai'i, he said.

"I've never been to Hawai'i and I've heard that the Hawaiian people are friendly, but give me a break," Veloza said.

Veloza said he believes the man arranged to meet Kimberly at the California airport and that the two got on a plane and flew here.

"My daughter doesn't drive. She doesn't have a license. She doesn't have a state ID, so how the hell can she go and buy a ticket?" Veloza said. "Or if this guy prepaid the ticket, how could she go pick it up and they allow her to fly?"

While on the phone with the man, Veloza said he demanded that the man call the police and arrange for officers to pick up Kimberly.

"He did it, which is the smartest thing he's done so far," Veloza said.

Officers with the Pearl City police substation retrieved the girl and she was picked up by a relative of Elizabeth Veloza.

Henry Veloza said he spoke briefly with Kimberly yesterday. He said he doesn't expect things to be perfect when she returns.

Veloza said police did not arrest the man, but he said he will pursue legal action. Veloza said he also planned to contact the Hawai'i Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

"If there's any way to prosecute this guy, I will," he said. Veloza said he was disturbed even further when the man called him in California yesterday to see how Kimberly was doing.

Reach Curtis Lum at culum@honoluluadvertiser.com.