Port-au-Prince , Haiti -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- After more than a month in a Haitian jail , an American missionary was free Monday night , looking forward to a hot shower and a long night in bed on home soil . But Charisa Coulter 's heart remains in Haiti , her father said , because her best friend , Laura Silsby is now alone behind bars . `` She came back with mixed emotions , '' Mel Coulter told CNN affiliate WSVN in Miami , Florida . Haitian Judge Bernard Saint-Vil released Coulter on Friday . She walked out of judicial police headquarters in Port-au-Prince and headed to the nearby airport for a flight to Miami . Coulter is staying in a hotel by herself , her father said . He did not know when she might return home to Boise , Idaho . He said his daughter had been through a `` trying experience '' and was welcoming the solitude . Coulter , Silsby and eight other Americans had been detained in Haiti on suspicion of kidnapping 33 children after the killer earthquake January 12 . Last month , Saint-Vil released the eight others , but Silsby and Coulter remained in custody because the judge wanted to learn more about their motives . On Friday , Silsby was brought into Saint-Vil 's office for further questioning . The missionaries were stopped by Haitian authorities on January 29 as they tried to cross the border with 33 children without proper legal documentation . The group said it was going to house the children in a converted hotel in the Dominican Republic and later move them to an orphanage . Saint-Vil recently traveled to the Dominican Republic to see where Silsby said she intended to open an orphanage . Silsby originally claimed the children were orphaned or abandoned , but CNN determined that more than 20 of them had at least one living parent . Some parents said they placed their children in Silsby 's care because that was the only way they knew to ensure a better quality of life for them . The 10 Americans , many of whom belong to a Baptist church in Idaho , have said they were trying to help the children get to a safe place after the 7.0-magnitude earthquake flattened cities and towns in Haiti . Silsby said she was `` very happy that Charisa went home today . '' She expected her freedom would soon follow . `` I came here to help these children , '' she said . CNN 's Lonzo Cook and Sara Sidner contributed to this report .