In the Right Place at the Right Time

Thursday morning, a co-worker's 15 year old daughter's suicide note was found and it said that she was going to a local lake to commit suicide. Kim called me to let me know and I rushed down to her office. She and I and another co-worker, Beth, went into the bathroom to pray. Because I have known the parents since about 1990, I just felt that I had to go to the lake and give my support as the police were combing the area for her body.

I jumped in my car (around 10:20a.m.)and took off, arriving at the landing to see the rescue efforts in full swing. There was a helicopter flying overhead and divers in a boat on the lake using sonar to try and find a body. I found the father and hugged him and told him we were all praying for his daughter to be found alive. It was so cold and the wind was blowing hard.

The longer we watched, the more I felt that she was not there. I can't explain how strong the feeling was in my heart that she just was not in that water. Another co-worker, Laura, had the same feeling I did. It had been raining the night before and it was cold. She would have had to walk 15-30 minutes to get to the landing from her home. She had said she was going to take pills and swim out and drown. It just did not seem right. I asked her brother if the police had checked out the area south of their home and he said that the police just came directly to the landing because that's where her note said she was going. I kept saying "We need to go look closer to the house." Teresa said "Let's go!" Paul, Teresa, the brother and I jumped in Paul's vehicle and took off towards the house. We went to another landing and started looking in the water. I started walking up the road and went into the woods. Teresa and the brother walked towards his house. Paul went in another direction. I found an open field with a lot of brush and a creek or big drainage ditch running through it, so I walked all through it looking in culverts and under bushes and in the water. I walked and prayed "Lord, please don't let me find her body. Please let us find her alive." I saw Paul drive by and thought I was going to have to walk back to the landing to get my car, but he saw me and turned around and picked me up.

We went to the house and the mother grabbed me and hugged me and just held on for dear life. It was so good seeing her, but not under those circumstances. She had been checking her daughter's computer and found the last entry to a boy on Facebook. Teresa said we needed to go knock on his door. He had already been questioned by the police and said he didn't know where she was. He was at school and his parents were at work, but we decided to go check out the house. Teresa just had a feeling like I had earlier that she was at that house or they knew where she was.

Paul was driving and Teresa was ready to get there and told him if he didn't step on it she was going to drive. Because of what happened to another friend of mine a few months ago when her daughter was missing, I knew that the kids would hide her and lie for her if she was still alive. We found the road that the house was on and we were driving around a circle looking for the house when we saw a girl drive up to a house, get out and head to an open door. It was the house we were looking for. There wasn't supposed to be anybody home, remember? Paul drove past and turned around. He was ready to go knock on the door, but Teresa and I told him to stop about four doors down and just watch and wait. Paul said "I didn't know I was with Starsky and Hutch. What do you two do? Watch cop shows all the time?" I don't know about Teresa, but I do. We knew that she would hide or run out the back and we'd never find her if we knocked on the door asking questions. We couldn't just barge into the house and search for her, so the best thing to do was wait and see. It seemed like forever, but it was probably only about 10 minutes.

Paul had noticed that the car was from out of state, so we decided to get closer and get the tag number. (I had left my camera in my car back at the landing. When I needed it the most, I didn't have it with me! I could have just zoomed in on the tag and we wouldn't have had to move.) As we got close to the car, two girls walked out the door. One was the girl we were searching for! Praise the Lord, she was alive! I noticed that she was carrying a blue duffle bag. Teresa was so excited, she couldn't dial her phone to let the father know we had found her. We circled around and came up behind the car and followed them to a stop sign. Teresa and I both yelled "Go around and block her! We've got to stop them!" Paul was amazing as he whipped that vehicle around and slammed on brakes in front of them. As soon as he stopped, all three of us jumped out and ran to their car. They knew they had been caught. (I have always wanted to be a cop; and when we jumped out of that car, I could just see myself in a police uniform. I can cross that off my bucket list - cop for a day.)

Teresa finally got in touch with the father and he told the police that we had found her. They didn't believe her at first, but when she said she had her arm around the girl and positively ID'd her, they finally believed her. We waited until four policemen arrived to take over custody of the girl. We went back to the landing to get my car and talk to the dad. As we got there, the Search and Rescue dog handlers were leaving with their dogs. This was a full-fledged search effort and the police, fire department, K-9 search and rescue people deserve to be commended for their hard work.

I left the lake and broke down and cried all the way to McDonald's and then again when I got to the office. Giving thanks to God that we found her alive.

All of us agree on one thing: God orchestrated this whole thing. Had we been a few minutes earlier, we would have knocked on the door and never found her. She would not have answered the door, so we would have kept looking for her. Had we been just a few minutes later, they would have been on their way out of town and the family would still be looking for a body. We give Him all the glory for the way this turned out. We just listened with our hearts and did what He led us to do. Now, we just pray that she gets the help she needs and will turn her life around and live a long and prosperous life. TO GOD BE THE GLORY!!!

Hutch signing off.....

We decided that Teresa was Starsky, I was Hutch and Paul is McGruff the Crime Dog.