Cookiebaker
03-27-2003, 06:47 PM
This story brought tears to my eyes. (Courtesy of http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/South/03/26/girl.found.ap/index.html)
Girl missing since 1999 found in Mexico
RALEIGH, North Carolina (AP) -- A girl who was 11 when she was abducted nearly four years ago came home from Mexico on Wednesday with two children of her own, and embraced her mother in a tearful reunion.
"Oh, my god, my baby, my baby," Wanda Pevia said as she held her daughter, Dana, now 15, at Raleigh-Durham International Airport. They walked hand-in-hand through the terminal while relatives attended to Dana's children, 3-year-old Sandra and 3-month-old Francisco.
Pevia had last seen her daughter June 4, 1999, when she walked to her school bus stop.
Dana went to the U.S. Consulate General's office in Guadalajara last week. Consulate officials contacted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which contacted the Hoke County sheriff's office.
Warrants have been issued charging Hector Majarro Frausto, 22, with kidnapping and statutory rape. Sheriff Hubert Peterkin said Frausto was the Pevias' neighbor when Dana disappeared, and used the family's telephone to call his family in Mexico.
Wanda Pevia had all but given up hope that she would find her daughter when the sheriff's office called March 18 to say her daughter was safe.
"Every time I'd watch TV and they'd find a body, I would pray it wasn't her," she said.
"Many times I've thought of suicide," she said through tears. "But I knew I had to be here for her when she came home."
Neither authorities nor Pevia know details of Dana's life in Mexico.
"She hasn't told me and I haven't asked," said Pevia, who was advised by officials to wait for the girl to volunteer information. "All I know is that she's coming home and she's all right, and that's all that matters."
Girl missing since 1999 found in Mexico
RALEIGH, North Carolina (AP) -- A girl who was 11 when she was abducted nearly four years ago came home from Mexico on Wednesday with two children of her own, and embraced her mother in a tearful reunion.
"Oh, my god, my baby, my baby," Wanda Pevia said as she held her daughter, Dana, now 15, at Raleigh-Durham International Airport. They walked hand-in-hand through the terminal while relatives attended to Dana's children, 3-year-old Sandra and 3-month-old Francisco.
Pevia had last seen her daughter June 4, 1999, when she walked to her school bus stop.
Dana went to the U.S. Consulate General's office in Guadalajara last week. Consulate officials contacted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which contacted the Hoke County sheriff's office.
Warrants have been issued charging Hector Majarro Frausto, 22, with kidnapping and statutory rape. Sheriff Hubert Peterkin said Frausto was the Pevias' neighbor when Dana disappeared, and used the family's telephone to call his family in Mexico.
Wanda Pevia had all but given up hope that she would find her daughter when the sheriff's office called March 18 to say her daughter was safe.
"Every time I'd watch TV and they'd find a body, I would pray it wasn't her," she said.
"Many times I've thought of suicide," she said through tears. "But I knew I had to be here for her when she came home."
Neither authorities nor Pevia know details of Dana's life in Mexico.
"She hasn't told me and I haven't asked," said Pevia, who was advised by officials to wait for the girl to volunteer information. "All I know is that she's coming home and she's all right, and that's all that matters."