LINCOLNVILLE ? A local girl who ran off with an adult male she met through an Internet chat room for goth culture fanciers has been found safe in North Carolina.

Waldo County sheriff’s Lt. Gary Boynton said Wednesday that the 15-year-old was traced to Leland, N.C., on Tuesday after having made a call to her father from the man’s home telephone. She told her father she was fine, Boynton said.

The girl was found Tuesday evening by Brunswick County, N.C., sheriff’s deputies at the home of the 25-year-old man she apparently knew as Ramon.

Boynton declined to identify “Ramon” because he has not been charged with a crime. Boynton said authorities were alerted to the missing Camden Hills Regional High School student by an adult female she lives with. The woman reported the girl missing Sunday night.

Boynton said the woman learned from the girl’s computer that she had been involved in discussions with a man through a goth chat room. Goth is a youth culture that emphasizes the darker side of human nature.

Sheriff’s deputies confiscated the computer and turned it over to the Maine State Police Computer Task Force. They also sent out teletypes on the Child Find Network and spoke to the girl’s friends and her father.

One friend told deputies she gave the girl a ride to the Augusta bus station. After contacting the bus company, Boynton learned that the girl had met a man at 3:30 p.m. Sunday and that together they boarded a bus south.

Boynton said the break came early Tuesday when the father reported that his daughter had called the night before to inform him she was fine. A check of the records of the father’s cellular telephone company provided deputies with the source of the girl’s phone call. They learned the call was placed from North Carolina.

Boynton contacted the nearest police in North Carolina and they determined the phone’s location. It was listed to a person with the middle name Ramon.

Based on that information, North Carolina authorities went to the home and found the girl. She was placed in protective custody, and family members left Maine to bring her home.

Boynton said it did not appear any criminal statutes applied to the situation in Maine, but the suspect could face federal charges.