California Teen Home Safe After Month In Shelters With Uncle

(CNN) -- A California man who spent a month on the run with his 15-year-old niece is now in a San Francisco jail, and the girl is back home with her parents, according to police and relatives.

Charles David Berlinghoff, 44, was caught this weekend, four weeks after the Shasta County Sheriff's office urged the public and law enforcement to be on the lookout for him. At that time, the police issued statements indicating his niece, Jean Marie Berlinghoff, was with him and "is believed to be endangered."

The girl, meanwhile, was reunited with her family at 8 a.m. Sunday, according to police. Her father called the meeting very emotional, full of hugs and tears.

"I was able to put my arms around her and hug her," Jake Berlinghoff told HLN's Jane Velez-Mitchell on Monday. "Amazing is an understatement. I can't put to words how happy I was to see her again, and how happy her mom was to see her."

That feeling was the opposite of the parents' feelings in previous weeks, while their daughter's whereabouts and condition were unknown.

Charles Berlinghoff had been in and out of his extended family's life, even losing regular contact for a full decade, his brother told HLN..

In 1998, Charles Berlinghoff pleaded no-contest to one count of child molestation -- part of a deal in which three other child molesting counts were dropped, according to California court documents. But his brother said that the extended family didn't know about that sex offense, a charge that the judge in 2002 expunged from his record.

GO HERE to read more.