And Never See Her Again (2 page)

Panicked, Teresa asked her grandson, "Austin, what's the matter? What's the matter?"

"Opal's gone," the towheaded boy howled.

"Gone where?" Teresa asked, confused by Austin's statement. She glanced toward the trees where the children had been seen playing about three minutes earlier when Robert had last checked on them. The site was empty. Opal and Spencer were both gone.

"Opal went where?" Teresa questioned again, her anxiety growing. Robert and Audrey joined Teresa and Austin on the porch, their brows wrinkled in puzzlement.

Austin lifted his small hand and pointed a tiny finger toward Teresa's sister's house on the corner of Worthy Street and North Hampshire. "Opal gone bye-bye," the child said through his tears.

Teresa swiftly picked up her grandson and hurried toward her sister Patricia's house. From the absence of cars, she could see no one was home, but she continued on, hoping to find Opal there. Audrey followed closely behind.

"No. Car," Austin said. The grown-ups didn't understand.

Teresa saw no sign of Opal, but she noticed Trey Barnes and Michael Logan throwing a ball from one side of Worthy Street to the other. "Have you seen Opal?" Teresa frantically asked the boys as she pushed her long brown hair back from her face.

Twelve-year-old Michael shook his head in the negative, while thirteen-year-old Trey said, "No."

"Have you noticed anything unusual?" Teresa asked anxiously.

"There was a car circling the neighborhood two or three times, real slow," one of the boys replied.

Teresa turned to her mother who had just joined her and the boys. "Mom, go back and call nine-oneone. These kids saw a car come around two or three times," Teresa told her. Worry etched her face.

"You go over to Spencer's house to see if Opal might have gone over there," Audrey instructed as she started back to the house to make the emergency call. It had been less than twenty-four hours since Audrey had spoken to Opal about talking to strangers. Their discussion had been prompted by the disappearance of nine-year-old Fleisha Moore in Dallas. Opal had been curious about the AMBER Alert, which had been frequently heard on television. Because of their discussion, Audrey was almost certain Opal wouldn't have talked with any stranger who might have approached her. But she couldn't help wondering if Opal had been able to make that choice.

Less than five minutes had elapsed since Austin's first terrifying cries had been heard. Teresa rushed across the street toward the house where Spencer lived with his mother, grandmother Charlene Williams, and great-grandmother Dorothy Flora. Seeing Dorothy in the front yard, Teresa asked, "Have you seen Opal? We can't find her."

"Oh, my gosh! " Dorothy replied. "Spencer came in real excited...."

Teresa didn't wait for Dorothy to say more, she went directly to the front door and knocked.

While Spencer had been playing with his friends across the street, Charlene had been enjoying a game of Free Cell on her home computer in the kitchen. Late in the afternoon Spencer had bolted into the house shouting.

"Grandma! Grandma!" Spencer had yelled only minutes before Teresa knocked on their door.

"What?" Charlene asked, a bit annoyed that her grandson had burst in the house screaming so loudly.

"Somebody took Opal! " the boy said excitedly.

Charlene looked at her grandson suspiciously. "Spencer, go back outside and play. You're watching too much television."

"Somebody took Opal! " Spencer repeated stubbornly.

Charlene believed Spencer's four-year-old imagination had gotten the best of him. Spencer, like Opal, had watched recent events in Dallas involving Fleisha Moore's abduction in southeast Dallas. She'd later been released unharmed in Navarro County. Charlene was certain Spencer had just transferred that child's plight to his friend Opal.

"Oh, honey, just go out and play," Charlene prompted.

"I don't want to go in front," Spencer snapped sharply, perhaps fearing that he could be the next one snatched by the man with the ponytail and red ball cap.

"Then go in the backyard," Charlene said, still believing Spencer's fantasy had overtaken his reason. Reluctantly Spencer walked through the small kitchen and out the back door.

Two to three minutes later, Charlene heard Teresa's knock at the door.

"Have you seen Opal?" Teresa asked, fear making her voice sound breathless. "We can't find her." Charlene could tell from the tone of her neighbor's voice and the expression on her face that Teresa was bordering on panic.

"Oh, my God," Charlene said. "Spencer came and told us that Opal was kidnapped, but I thought he was being silly. I sent him outside. He's in the backyard."

"I have to talk to him," Teresa declared.

Charlene left Teresa in the house and hurriedly went through the back door to retrieve her grandson.

Four-year-old Spencer ran to where Teresa waited. The boy, his blond hair styled in a short crew cut, was shaking. Visibly upset, Spencer found it difficult to verbalize what had occurred to his playmate Opal.

"What happened?" Teresa asked. 'What happened to Opal?"

"We were playing on the lot in the anthill and a car pulled up. A man got out of the car, picked Opal up, knocked her in the car, and took off!" the boy exclaimed. "Opal was crying. She was crying. She was crying!" Spencer babbled.

"Where did he go?" Teresa asked as calmly as she could, attempting to soothe the boy. "Which way did he go?"

"He started to head toward Worthy, but when he got to Pat's house, he pulled into the driveway, flipped around, and headed back," Spencer replied, sounding much older than his mere four years.

Teresa's initial worry quickly surged to panic.

"What did he look like?" Teresa questioned.

"He had little marks on his face," Spencer stated.

"Do you mean whiskers?" Teresa asked.

"No, they were just marks, like little pimples or things like that," Spencer stated.

Charlene's heart sank. Spencer had been telling her the truth. Opal had been kidnapped. Charlene felt awful-why hadn't she listened to her grandson? She believed he'd merely been repeating what he'd seen on television. She had lived in her house on North Hampshire for thirty years, had watched most of the neighborhood children play on the lot across the street. They would climb up and down the small trees, play ball on the grass, get into any kind of mischief they could. But nothing like this had ever happened before. She felt sick to her stomach.

"The man had long hair and a baseball cap," Spencer added, interrupting his grandmother's thoughts.

"What did the car look like?" Charlene asked, attempting to help get as much information as she could from the four-year-old.

"It was a purpledy black car. He took Opal and put her in the car. It looked a little bit like Mommy's," Spencer said, referring to his mother's black Trans Am sports car. "But it's not just like Mommy's."

Teresa's mind was whirling. A purplish black car. Teresa remembered a black car with tinted windows moving extremely slowly up the street earlier in the day. She recalled it because the car was traveling no more than five miles per hour and had driven by two or three different times. Teresa had seen the car a couple of times before so she hadn't thought much about it at the time, but now she wondered if it could have been the same car, driven by the same person Spencer said had taken Opal. Teresa's heart filled with dread.

"Can Spencer come talk to the police?" Teresa asked Charlene.

"I'll bring him over," Charlene said as Teresa hurried back across to the Sanderford house, where police were already arriving.

Charlene's physical condition was poor. In the last seven years she'd been on medical disability as a result of three heart attacks, bypass surgery, diabetes, and the beginning of Parkinson's. She asked her next-door neighbor Colleen Vincent if she could take Spencer to the Sanderfords'.

After walking Spencer to the curb, where her neighbor met him to take him across North Hampshire, Charlene went into the house to fetch her car keys. She was in no physical condition to walk the neighborhood in search of Opal, but she was certainly able to drive.

While Teresa talked with Spencer, Audrey had made the 911 call to Saginaw police. Her hand had shaken as she took the receiver from the cradle and her fingers trembled as she punched the three numbers no parent ever wants to use to summon help for their child.

Speaking in a voice laced with traces of an Arkansas accent and the stress of a frantic grandparent, Audrey told the 911 operator that her granddaughter Opal had been kidnapped.

"My name is Audrey Sanderford," Opal's grandmother began, seemingly gulping for air. "My granddaughter was playing out in the yard and she disappeared and nobody can find her."

After urging from the 911 operator, Audrey gave the dispatcher Opal's description.

"My little grandson came in crying. He said Opal got in a car," Audrey said, struggling to maintain emotional control while desperately wanting to scream.

"One kid said there wasa car driving around real slow in the neighborhood," Audrey stated. Then before disconnecting from the dispatcher, Audrey Sanderford repeated her street address.

Audrey's legs wobbled under the strain of Opal's disappearance. She reached for a chair to steady herself.

Within three minutes of Audrey's frenzied call, the familiar Saginaw black-and-white patrol cars pulled in front of the Sanderford home. In less then ten minutes officers had blocked off the streets surrounding the area. They immediately began scouting for dark-colored cars with children inside. Teresa's own son was detained by police. He was unable to leave until Teresa identified him and the kids riding in his vehicle.

Curious neighbors began to gather on the street in front of the house where Opal had been living for the past six months. They all knew the happy-faced little girl with the endearing smile. She had become a radiant light in their neighborhood. As each of the neighbors began to learn the news of Opal's abduction, their faces became drawn and creases of concern crossed their foreheads.

Saginaw Fire Department (SFD) trucks joined the police cars parked on North Hampshire. The firemen exited their units and immediately began to explore the Sanderford home. They searched every nook and cranny of the house, under beds, in closets, showers, and behind furniture. The men even delved into an old trunk in the attic in hopes Opal was playing a game, waiting for Spencer and Austin to find her. But Opal was nowhere inside the Sanderford home. It appeared her two young playmates had been correct; Opal had been abducted.

Charlene steered her car around Worthy, Western, and Lemon, then out to the highway. She made a pass by the playground, where kids frequently played on small rocking-type horses, the snow cone stand, the familiar red-and-white DQ sign of the local Dairy Queen, and Diamond's, the local grocery store. She pulled into the nearby convenience store. Charlene's eyes scanned the streets, the parking lots, the driveways. She was looking for any dark car with a child inside. She went down each of the blocks in her neighborhood from varying directions. She passed by a number of dark-colored vehicles, but none appeared to hold Opal Jennings. After a twenty- to twenty-five-minute search, Charlene returned home.

By the time Charlene turned her car back toward her house the police and fire department personnel were canvassing her street. Friends in the tight-knit neighborhood had learned of Opal's abduction and many had set out to search for the little girl themselves. Together Trey Barnes and his mother went looking for the missing girl. Audrey, Robert, and Teresa nervously stayed by the phone in hopes of some word from Opal. Within an hour it was obvious the six-year-old was nowhere in the neighborhood.

The abduction of Opal Jennings was unlike any case Detective James Neal or the Saginaw Police Department (SPD) had ever handled. Neal spoke with each member of the Sanderford family, establishing the facts of Opal's abduction. He got a description of the child, including the clothing she'd been wearing. He would question the Sanderfords more intensely at the police station later, but right now, time was of the essence. Neal gave the order to sound the AMBER Alert. If lucky, someone would spot the dark-colored car with a small child inside and alert authorities. Or, as in the case of the Dallas abduction, the perpetrator would hear the alert, become frightened of apprehension, and let the girl go unharmed. Either way, the results should be positive. The detective didn't want to dwell on the negative statistics; he wanted Opal back safely.

Detective Neal also realized this was no time for egos or jurisdictional squabbling. He immediately notified the local branch of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

"We have a missing girl," Neal began, providing the details of the abduction as he knew them. Although professional in his presentation, Neal was anxious inside. He knew the statistics, the possibilities of Opal Jennings's fate. He understood that quick action was possibly the only thing that could save the little girl from the clutches of an unknown perpetrator.

Neal continued with the description of Opal.

"She's six years old, has brown hair, blue eyes, is about four feet tall, and weighs about sixty pounds," Neal stated. "She was last seen wearing purple shorts, a purple shirt, and pink Barbie tennis shoes." Neal gave the location of Opal's abduction and the time frame from which they were working.

At the Sanderford house, Teresa and Audrey prayed for Opal's return. Teresa kept Austin close, insisting he remain in the house near her. She gazed out at the trees where only a short time ago Spencer, Austin, and Opal had been playing cheerfully. The beautiful cool afternoon had turned to a dreary, cold, wet night. Teresa continued to contemplate how Opal could be missing. They had kept a close eye on the children. They had talked to them about strangers. It all seemed impossible, but she knew it was real.

"She's out there," Teresa said to Clay as she stared out the window, her voice filled with concern. "She's probably cold and wet. She only had on shorts and a T-shirt. She must be cold."