Mom of missing girl: Hope is part of me
It was a week before Christmas in 2011 when Phoenix Coldon, 23, drove away from her house in St. Louis County, Missouri and never returned. Three hours after she left, her black Chevy was impounded by police 25 minutes from her house. The car was empty, and the motor was still running. The driver's side door was open.
Her parents firmly believe she's still alive. The Christmas tree remains lit as they wait to have her home again.
Phoenix's father Lawrence Coldon tells Anderson Cooper that law enforcement didn't tell him and his wife about finding their daughter's car that day. "We lost two weeks of investigative time trying to find our daughter, and we didn't know where the vehicle was."
 |
Post by: Filed under: 3 Missing Teens Found in Ohio • Vanished |
Women acted on intuition and saved kids
During a special program dedicated to missing persons cases, three women who saved kidnapped children explain how everyone can be a hero by being observant and taking action.
Amber Deahn, a former waitress, noticed a little girl in her Idaho restaurant at 2:30 a.m. who was exhibiting strange behavior. The situation seemed off to Deahn and she thought the child was acting depressed. When she asked her manager to make the call for help, she was refused access to the office. Deahn persisted and threatened to walk out if she couldn't use the phone to call 911. Her instincts were spot on and her actions saved the child who was at the restaurant with her captor.
"Nobody needs credentials to do the right thing ... I'm not a police officer. I don't work with the FBI. I was a pregnant mother on the night shift trying to make ends meet. If I can do it, there's no reason nobody else can," she says.
|
|
Post by: Filed under: 3 Missing Teens Found in Ohio • Crime & Punishment • Vanished |
Moms of missing kids: We'll never give up
The mothers of Jacob Wetterling and Morgan Nick talk about their unwavering search for their missing children.
|
|
Post by: Filed under: 3 Missing Teens Found in Ohio • Crime & Punishment • Vanished |
Are two missing women linked to Castro?
Ashley Summers and Christy Adkins both disappeared in the same area where three women were found in Cleveland on Monday. Anderson Cooper talks with each child's family about their search efforts.
|
|
Post by: Filed under: 3 Missing Teens Found in Ohio • Crime & Punishment |
Locked in dungeon, woman overcame trauma
Kidnapping survivor Katie Beers shares her story of strength 20 years after she was chained by her neck in an underground dungeon and assaulted for 17 days by a neighbor when she was nine years old.
She willingly went with her captor, John Esposito, because he was a family friend she trusted. Looking back, Beers remembers playing in his yard and seeing him build the dungeon years before she was taken.
John Walsh, host of "America's Most Wanted," calls Beers "one of the bravest, strongest women" he's ever met. He wants the three kidnapping victims who were found in Cleveland last week to know that they don't have to talk openly with the media about their story until they're ready, just as Beers did. She was kept out of the spotlight so she could heal.
|
|
Post by: Filed under: 3 Missing Teens Found in Ohio • Crime & Punishment • Vanished |
Castro's daughter doesn't want to see him
Seldom does a daughter use such harsh words to describe her own father.
Ariel Castro's daughter called him "the most evil, vile, demonic criminal" she ever heard of during a CNN exclusive interview Thursday.
"He is dead to me," Angie Gregg said of the father police say kidnapped, held captive, raped and beat three young women in Cleveland for about a decade.
She had known her "daddy" as a "friendly, caring, doting man."
Kidnapping victim's aunt: God heard us
Gina DeJesus' family calls her return a miracle. She was missing for nine years, but they say she's now in great spirits. Her aunt Sandra Ruiz and cousin Sylvia Colon talk with Anderson Cooper about their family's strength and joy.
|
|
Post by: Filed under: 3 Missing Teens Found in Ohio |
Man: I saw DeJesus before she vanished
CNN's Gary Tuchman talks to a man who believes he saw Gina DeJesus on the day she was kidnapped in 2004. Eric Poindexter says a car cut him off and swerved into a parking lot, heading in the direction of the young girl he thinks was DeJesus. Poindexter and his brother immediately told police what they saw when reports emerged about a missing teen who was last seen in that area. He remembers law enforcement didn't want to talk to them or view their information as credible.
 |
Post by: Filed under: 3 Missing Teens Found in Ohio |
Disturbing ties between Castro and victims
While Gina DeJesus was missing, her alleged captor, Ariel Castro, was comforting her family. CNN's Randi Kaye reports.
 |
Post by: Filed under: 3 Missing Teens Found in Ohio • Crime & Punishment |
Former in-laws: Castro is a monster
The sister and niece of Ariel Castro's former common-law wife say that he abused her and caused injuries that led to her death.
|
|
Post by: Filed under: 3 Missing Teens Found in Ohio • Crime & Punishment |
