18 Year Old Moved Out Still In High School

This is my situation. I am married in the DFW TX area. My daughter is a senior in High School and just turned 18 2 weeks ago. She is a lesbian (which is fine with us, no judgement has ever been on her for that). She has been dating her girlfriend for maybe a year and a half or so. I’m sad to say that our marriage is not the greatest. My wife is diagnosed bi-polar. That is not an excuse, I’m far from perfect and I am trying to make it work. Over the last year she has been wanting to leave but I try to hold the family together. We absolutely 100% never abuse our daughter in any way at all. However, it’s been very uncomfortable for her at home. She mainly just stays in her bedroom, like a lot of teenage girls I’m sure. She is happier when she is at her g/’s house.

Two years ago my daughter was struggling greatly and cut herself in March of 2023. She got taken to the hospital we put her in a behavioral place for a week. She has done therapy and we thought was getting better. In August of 2024 she did not cut herself but threatened to do so. Her g/f’s dad works for her high school and found out and called CPS on my wife for basically being abusive. We met with the CPS agent and had a talk to for an hour. We put our daughter on a few meds and had a safety plan in place. About two months after that we got a letter from the state saying that my wife has been cleared of any wrong doing. She and I are not perfect parents but in no way ever want to abuse or even raise my voice too much to her. That is the back story which I felt I had to tell briefly which brings me to me situation.

My daughter turned 18 roughly 2 weeks ago. The day after she turned 18 she went to school and I thought was coming home. I went to take the trash out for a minute (I WFH). I saw her pull up to the back thinking she was going to park like normal. I didn’t think anything of it and went back into the house to go back to work. Maybe 10-15 minutes later I realize that I don’t hear her or anything as her room is close to work office. I pause work and look for her. She had left the house. I go into the garage and her car is still there. I’m really puzzled wondering what is going on. When I went into the garage the first time I didn’t see it, but I went in a second time and I see that she has left her iPhone, car keys and obviously her car at the house. There is a note saying that now since she is legally 18 she has decided to move in with her g/f and her parents.

After calling the wife I go over to their house which is a good 20+ minute drive away. We have not been allowed to see her g/f as she says that their family is very religious-Mormon. She goes over to their house all the time but the girlfriends isn’t allowed to come over here. The father says my daughter has chosen to live there and she is welcome to stay there. Not only that but they have either bought her a phone or given one to her from somewhere so now she has a totally new phone number that we are not allowed to have and is on their family plan. Which I knew nothing about. We have heard that they want to put her on their health insurance as well.

Having said that, she is now 18, a legal adult even though she doesn’t graduate high school till late May. We haven’t been coping very well and a little afraid to go back over there fearing that they will ignore us or not let us have any contact with her. We make average money in today’s world but b/c she is a single child she has been very spoiled since day one really. I don’t know if there is we can really do legally. It’s been two weeks and we haven’t heard from her. We even have some money in a college fund for her but I don’t believe she can access without us. She also had a student checking account and got some money for her birthday. One hour after all of this happened she transferred all of her money to that family, leaving only $1 in her account.

I know she is 18 but if there is anything I can do legally please let me know. We want the best for her and even though this not a kidnapping or anything it feels like that. Any legal or other advice would be welcome. Thank You