Two teen hikers lost for days in a California forest might have to pay for part or all of the $160,000 search after a small amount of drugs was found in their car, authorities said.

Officials initially said Nicolas Cendoya, 19, and Kyndall Jack, 18, wouldn't be responsible for search costs. But Cendoya was charged this week with drug possession because methamphetamine was allegedly found in the car the pair parked before going on a hike last month in Cleveland National Forest.

"The recent drug charge on Cendoya may change things," said Gail Krause, a spokeswoman with the Orange County Sheriff's Department.

---

Cendoya was found three days after he and Jack disappeared. She was found four days later. Both were dehydrated and delirious, and remembered little of their ordeal, including how they were separated. They also said they had hallucinations, with Jack saying she thought she was being attacked by animals.

"They didn't go out there to hike, they went out there to get high. And they got disoriented," Orange County board supervisor Todd Spitzer told the Los Angeles Times.

Spitzer said all options are being considered, including civil and criminal action. He hopes to have a recommendation to the board in the coming weeks.

Supervisor John Moorlach questioned why taxpayers should be penalized for what he characterized as reckless actions by the hikers.

"We certainly want to save them but, by golly, you were saved and you owe your society a debt of gratitude," he said, "and you need to pay the bill."

If convicted, Cendoya would face a sentencing range from probation to three years in jail. 

-- The Associated Press

A grand jury has indicted a former SoHo bodega clerk on charges he lured 6-year-old Etan Patz into a basement and killed him 33 years ago, sources familiar with the case told NBC 4 New York.

Pedro Hernandez is charged with murder and kidnapping, the sources said.

Hernandez, who has a history of mental illness, was arrested last spring, decades after Patz disappeared off a SoHo street in a tragic case that has mystified New York City.

Previous story: Grand jury considers charges in Etan Patz disappearance

---

Police said Hernandez had admitted to luring Patz into a bodega where he worked, near the boy's house, and choking him to death in the basement.    

Hernandez's attorney, Harvey Fishbein, said the trial would not solve the mystery of what happened to Patz.

Hernandez, he said, suffers from schizophrenia and has hallucinations. Fishbein said the entire case is based on statements made by his mentally ill client.

"The statements alleged by the people are not supported by any evidence whatsoever despite extraordinary investigative efforts by the police, back then and now," Fishbein said.

Read the indictment here (PDF)

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said at the time that police focused on Hernandez, who now lives in Maple Shade, N.J., after the Missing Persons Squad received a tip from someone who remembered Hernandez speaking of having killed a child.

A spokeswoman for the Manhattan District Attorney said the grand jury found sufficient evidence to charge Hernandez and that the office believes the case should go to trial.

"This indictment is the outcome of a lengthy and deliberative process, involving months of factual investigation and legal analysis," said spokeswoman Erin Duggan.

Jonathan Dienst is WNBC’s chief investigative correspondent. Shimon Prokupecz is a WNBC investigative producer.

Police have released a surveillance photo of a young woman they believe to be the runaway 16-year-old New Jersey girl who set off a Twitter firestorm after she apparently falsely indicated an intruder was in her home and disappeared.

Kara Alongi, 16, was seen on a security camera at the NJ Transit Rahway train station in Union County, holding a backpack and a large purse. Police say she purchased a train ticket to New York Penn Station Sunday evening and authorities are working with NJ Transit to review available station video.

Alongi gained thousands of followers after asking people on Twitter to call 911 Sunday because an intruder was in her home and then vanishing. People re-tweeted her message and #helpfindkara trended on the social network.

---

Investigators later said it appeared Alongi, of Clark, had voluntarily called a taxi company and gotten a ride to the Rahway train station, which police say is confirmed by the surveillance photo. Police do not believe any foul play was involved, but stress Alongi remains missing and her family wants her home.

"Kara might feel that she will be in trouble if she comes home after this scare and causing a panic," Clark Police Chief Alan Scherb said Monday as the extensive search got underway. "At this point, all everyone cares about is seeing her safe and at her house where she belongs."

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Twitter users worldwide tweeted messages of good will @KaraAlongi Sunday night as her initial post asking for help circulated. Many said they were frightened to think about what could have happened to her.

Others were skeptical about her pleas for help, pointing out a Tweet that allegedly popped up on Alongi's account that said: "Why is everyone saying I'm missing? I was jkin haha" and was deleted a short time later.      

Police: No foul play in missing NJ teen Kara Alongi case

When NBC 4 New York called the missing girl's home, someone quickly answered "no comment" and hung up. No one answered the door.

Watch the most-viewed videos on NBCNews.com

For Carly Martin, a Rutgers sophomore who followed the tweets Sunday night, it was more than disappointing to find out someone just a few years younger would take advantage of a social media site in that way.

"That's just ridiculous," Martin said. "You shouldn't be making a joke out of that when people are actually missing."

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Raymond Roth, a 47-year-old man living in Massapequa, N.Y., was arrested Wednesday on suspicion that he faked his own drowning at a New York beach in order to collect more than $400,000 in life insurance. Roth was charged with insurance fraud, conspiracy and filing a false report. But what if he hadn't been doing it for the money? Is merely faking your own death a crime?

The short answer is no. If you hate your life, you're technically allowed to contrive a departure from it.

"I am unaware of any federal statute that would apply to an individual who fakes their own death," FBI spokesman Bill Carter told Life's Little Mysteries. 

---

In fact, according to missing person search-and-rescue expert Jeff Hasse, president of the Minnesota-based company Midwest Technical Rescue Training Associates, the right to disappear often causes conflicts between families of missing persons and law-enforcement agencies. Families think police investigators should do more to search for their missing loved one.

"Law enforcement's response is, 'He's an adult. He can go missing if he wants to,'" Hasse told Life's Little Mysteries. If there's no evidence of foul play involved, sheriffs may not pursue a missing adult.

However, despite having the right to vanish without a trace or fake your own death, it's almost impossible to do so without eventually breaking a few laws.

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"Pseudocide (faking one's own suicide) isn't inherently a crime," said James Quiggle, director of communications for the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud in Washington, D.C. "But it involves so many built-in frauds that it's virtually impossible to legally fake your drowning. Frankly, you'll only be drowning in fraud.

"You may be stealing life insurance," Quiggle continued. "Or your spouse is part of the con and files a false police report. You're also avoiding a large variety of taxes, and defrauding lenders of your home and car. Then when you resurface with a new identity, you're defrauding every government agency that processes your new identity — and old identity. And you're defrauding new lenders if you buy a house or car under your new identity."

The criminal charges quickly stack up. Of course, you'll only find yourself in handcuffs if you are found out.

Follow Natalie Wolchover on Twitter @nattyover or Life's Little Mysteries @llmysteries. We're also on Facebook & Google+.

• 15 Weird Things Humans Do Every Day, and Why
• The Science of Death: 10 Tales from the Crypt & Beyond
• What Are The Leading Causes of Death?

Copyright 2012 Life's Little Mysteries, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Update at 6:37 p.m. ET: Investigators are saying two Iowa cousins who disappeared a week ago have been abducted after a search of the lake where their bikes were found came up empty.

Cousins Lyric Cook-Morrissey, 10, and 8-year-old Elizabeth Collins, went missing July 13 while the pair were riding bikes near Meyers Lake in Evansdale.

Investigators began draining the lake Monday, but stopped at the FBI's request so divers could conduct a search with special sonar equipment, The Associated Press reported. 

---

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The sonar doesn't work in less than six feet of water.

Black Hawk County Sheriff Chief Deputy Rick Abben told reporters at a news conference Friday that evidence was collected and sent to a lab to be tested. He did not say what the evidence was.

The announcement comes the same day a judge put Lyric’s father, 36-year-old Daniel Morrissey, on pretrial supervision until September when he is scheduled to face drug charges.

Authorities said Morrissey and his wife, Misty Cook-Morrissey, 34, stopped cooperating with police as of Thursday, The AP reported.

The AP reported Abben said neither is considered a suspect and wasn't sure why they had stopped talking with police. 

Related: Families of missing Iowa girls fear they were kidnapped

Cook's sister, Tammy Brousseau, told the AP the girl's parents felt like they were being treated as suspects. Both stopped cooperating after their attorney advised them to do so. 

"They've been cooperating with the police 100 percent, but because police don't have a silver Cadillac that tore off with the kids, they don't have no leads," she told AP. 

Cook told the Des Moines Register Thursday that Daniel walked out of a police interview earlier in the week after police accused him of killing the two girls. 

Authorities also have sifted through trash, examined a laptop and computer, and dug into the parents' past criminal histories. 

Cook has a meth-related drug charge from 10 years ago and Daniel has multiple drug charges along with burglary and domestic assault. 

Morrissey is charged with possession of methamphetamine with intent to deliver conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine and other crimes.

The Register reported Morrissey's eight-year marriage to Cook has been rocky at times. The domestic assault charges stems from a 2011 incident where Cook told police he smashed her face into the floor and placed his knee over her neck, making it difficult for her to breathe.

Brousseau told the station the pair had a no contact order with each other but has since been modified since both girls went missing. 

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The Queens woman who disappeared Sunday and whose phone transmitted a disturbing text message to her sister was found alive in Texas Thursday, officials said.

Rajwinder Kaur, 26, was located in Dallas after a friend went to police and informed them of her location, a law enforcement official said. The friend had purchased a bus ticket to Dallas for Kaur.

It wasn't clear why Kaur was in Texas. 

---

See the original report at NBCNewYork.com 

"There are no words to express our sincere gratitude to the NYPD, family, friends and everyone that assisted with this search," Kaur's family said in a statement Thursday. "The alarming text message was our biggest concern and we are just relieved that she is alive and well." 

Kaur was last seen Sunday night at her home when she left at about 8 p.m. to volunteer at a homeless shelter in Brooklyn and never returned, her family said.

Later that night, Kaur's sister Gurpreet received a text message from her sister's phone.

Watch US News videos on msnbc.com

"It said, 'The girl with this phone is dead,'" Gurpreet Kaur told the station Tuesday. 

Gurpreet Kaur didn't think her sister wrote the message. 

Police said Rajwinder Kaur's phone was tracked to Brooklyn Sunday night, then it was then shut off. 

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Rajwinder Kaur reportedly sold her family possessions on eBay before disappearing, sources told NBCNewYork. 

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The body of a man reported missing in Canada has been found in a Michigan landfill. 

Kevin Joseph Arendt, 38, of Mississauga, Ontario, near Toronto, was last seen leaving a local bar around 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday, according to a press release issued Monday by Canadian police. 

His body was discovered Friday by workers in a Flint-area landfill, it said.

---

Constable George Tudos of the Peel Regional Police Department in Ontario told msnbc.com on Tuesday that investigators are working with Michigan law enforcement to try and determine how Arendt ended up in the landfill.

Tudos said investigators don't know if Arendt was intoxicated when he left the bar. An autopsy was inconclusive, but uncovered no evidence of foul play, he said.

"How he got there is something we're looking into because it's not that common, " he said.

Dan Gudgel, district manager of the Brent Run landfill, told the Flint Journal that between 60 percent and 80 percent of the refuse that ends up in the landfill originates in Canada, mostly from the Toronto area.

Investigators have talked to witnesses at the bar, but haven't released any details about they've found. 

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OAK BEACH, N.Y. -- Police searching a Long Island marsh near where a New Jersey escort vanished last year found new items Tuesday, including clothing, that could provide clues in the case, law-enforcement sources tell NBC New York.

Divers found the items in knee-deep water in the marsh in Oak Beach, sources said. The Suffolk County Police Department said at a press conference Tuesday afternoon that no remains were found. But a law enforcement source tells NBC New York that remains were uncovered in the search.

---

 

The new search, which was not officially announced by police like the previous ones, appears to be the first time authorities have searched this particular area in recent months.

Read the original story from NBCNewYork.com

"This was not the result of a new tip," Suffolk County police inspector Stuart Cameron said at the press conference. "This was just a result of us wanting to re-search an area within which [missing escort Shannan Gilbert] was last seen."

"Today's conditions are more favorable than when we searched it in the past, because some of the areas were not under water today as they were in the past," he continued.

But neighbors wondered what prompted such a heavy police presence.

"They came in for 'a look,'" said one area resident. "But they came in with more than 14 vehicles, so they came in for more than just a look."

Gilbert was last seen running from a home in Oak Beach in May 2010. Gilbert's disappearance prompted a search of the nearby Gilgo beach area that ultimately resulted in the findings of at least 10 sets of remains.

Police have said they do not believe Gilbert's disappearance was connected to the other victims' cases.

In Tuesday's search, Suffolk police closed an access road to the Oak Beach gated community where Gilbert is believed to have visited a client the night she vanished.

Police had at least five canine units with them, sources tell NBC New York. Crime scene units and a dive team were also at the location.

Police would not confirm or deny whether they uncovered any additional potential evidence.

Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer appeared briefly at the search site but then left.

Several homes are located in the vicinity of the swamp, including one owned by Peter Hackett, the doctor whose house was searched earlier this year in connection with Gilbert's disappearance. He was never named a suspect.

Joseph Brewer, the client police believe Gilbert drove to Oak Beach to meet, had been previously interviewed by detectives. He voluntarily surrendered his SUV and cooperated with a polygraph test. Brewer was never identified as a suspect in Gilbert's disappearance.

Mari Gilbert, Shannan's mother, told NBC New York she was unaware of  any search being conducted Tuesday.

Police conducted a separate search near Gilgo Beach Monday, but said they did not uncover any new evidence related to either case.

Police said last week they believe one person is responsible for the deaths of the 10 victims discovered in the underbrush between December 2010 and April of this year.

All 10 victims, only five of whom have been identified, appeared to have connections to the sex trade.

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