“She’s safe, and she’s coming home.”

That’s what the family of Lisa McLelland said Tuesday about the woman’s reported disappearance last month. Her car was found abandoned at the Pensacola, Fla., airport nearly two weeks ago.

McLelland – a more than four-year employee at Andalusia’s Dairy Queen – was reported missing by her sister on Nov. 15 after a cryptic Facebook message said McLelland was in Egypt.

Turns out, the message was true, and McLelland has told her family she will arrive sometime today, said her sister, Marilyn Mulvaney of Andalusia.

Mulvaney, who contacted The Star-News for help just before Thanksgiving, had reported McLelland’s disappearance to the Covington County Sheriff’s Office and the Mobile FBI office.

Previously, Mulvaney and other family members said they believed that McLelland could have left the area after meeting someone online and feared the worst after receiving cryptic Facebook messages about McLelland’s location and calls to her cell phone went unanswered.

Now, the family will soon be able to get the whole story firsthand, Mulvaney said.

“(McLelland) was actually in Egypt, if you can believe it,” she said. “I haven’t spoken with her, but she’s talked with her daughter and our brother. They’ve said she will fly in at 8:30 p.m. (Tuesday night).

“I don’t know what she was thinking or what she was doing, but she’s got a lot of explaining to do,” Mulvaney said. “There’s going to be a long line waiting for her at the airport, I can tell you that.”

The authorities have been notified about the discovery of her sister’s whereabouts, Mulvaney said.

“Everyone is upset with her about this stunt,” she said of her sister’s actions. “It made us sick, wondering if she was dead or alive.”

Mulvaney expressed her gratitude at the public’s willingness to help locate her sister.

“I saw that the (Star-News) story was shared all over Facebook, and I really, really appreciate it,” she said. “She has said that she was having some family issues and just had to get away.

“I’m sort of embarrassed about the whole thing on one hand, but on the other, I can let my embarrassment go when it comes to the welfare of my family,” she said. “We found her and she’s safe, that’s all that matters.”