- Lateche Norris, a 20-year-old from Indiana, was found safe in California after being missing for a month.
- Norris told CBS 8 that she and her boyfriend were living near San Diego and were homeless.
- Norris's father told Insider that his daughter called her mom after she came across a flyer about her disappearance.
A missing Indiana woman who was found safe last week said she didn't make contact with her family for a month because she was experiencing homelessness.
Lateche Norris, 20, traveled to San Diego, California on November 1 to visit her boyfriend, Joey Smith, 25. Norris called her mother from an unknown number on November 5, but that was the last she was heard from for a month.
"We had been staying in Chula Vista on the side of the highway where there's absolutely no people and no resources," Norris told CBS 8, sitting alongside Smith and her mother, Cheryl Walker. "It's very tough being homeless out here, figuring out how are we going to eat today, how are we going to just live day to day and survive."
Norris' father, Walter Omega Cullum, told Insider that Norris saw a flyer about her disappearance and called her mother.
"Both of them found each other. Teche called her, texted her, she'd seen a flyer or something in Chula Vista right outside of San Diego," Cullum told Insider. "She came up to San Diego or something to use the library and seen all the fliers."
Norris contacted her mother on December 3 using a borrowed cell phone, she told CBS.
"I was just sitting there, and I got a text and I saw it, and it just said, 'Hey mama. It's Teche,'" Walker told CBS 8. "Honestly, I didn't even read the rest of it. I just hit dial and called her and told her we were here."
"I don't think she knew what to feel at that moment, but there was a lot of tears, but definitely happy that she didn't have to see the worst happen," Norris said.
A vindicated boyfriend
Prior to locating her daughter, Walker said she was worried because Smith was "troubled" and had a history of drug addiction, Insider's Mia Jankowicz reported. After finding her daughter, Walker, in a since-deleted Facebook post, said, "I feel it's imperative to state that Joey hasn't hurt her."
Norris echoed the sentiment to CBS, saying she's alive and well because of her boyfriend. She said Smith traveled to San Diego seeking a rehabilitation facility but was denied, leaving him homeless.
"Joey's probably the reason that I have been able to be found safe," Norris said. "He's never, ever put me in any physical harm at all."
The couple is planning to move back to Indiana where Smith said he has a job offer lined up to help him get back on his feet.
"I have never been a danger or a harm to Teche, and I will always put her first," Smith said. "So whatever she wants to do and whatever's gonna be best for us as a couple, I will do."
"We definitely have things to learn from, but we are open to learning. We recognize our mistakes, and we do genuinely love each other," Norris said.
Accusations against the family's GoFundMe
Norris's mother had organized a GoFundMe as she attempted to locate her daughter. After Norris was found, Walker said people accused her of scamming people with the fundraiser that had raised over $7,000 as of Tuesday.
"We were attacked by this podcaster on Twitter who elicited an army to say that this was all a scam," Walker told CBS. "So the GoFundMe is locked down. We're now stranded here. We can't even fly ourselves home."
GoFundMe did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Podcaster Andy Signore released an episode titled "Was Lateche Norris Missing Report a HOAX?!" that garnered over 18,000 views on YouTube.
"Apparently some cowards on Twitter who pretend to be advocates and a small hand full of trolls...are insinuating that this was a scam," Walker wrote in an update to the GoFundMe accusations, adding that she is no longer asking for donations.
"I'm leaving this campaign open for the time being, because I've had people asking what Lateche needs," Walker added.