Rural deputy finds runaway looking for her dad. A touching story of finding way back home.
He saw her walking down the edge of the road on that cool spring morning, clear and crisp. He was sure that was the girl from the morning briefing. Clyde Filmore is a deputy for the county sheriff and works out of his house. Every morning before he starts patrolling, He checks emails for bulletins and other concerns for his little corner of the county. If it is imperative then there is a video conference with the sergeant.
That morning there is just a picture of a teenager who ran away. She is from the Los Angeles. The authorities in LA found information about our little community on her computer. Who would have thought Clyde would find her on his road less than two hundred feet from his drive. The bulletin indicated she is 15 years old and her name is Carol Ann Donnelly.
Clyde stops the patrol car and said “Hi Carol Ann.” She climbs into the patrol car without a fuss. The under dressed girl looks very cold and he suspects she has not eaten in a while. She does not have much to say and refuses to tell him why she ran away. Clyde radios dispatch and informs the office of the situation.
They travel almost a quarter mile when Carol becomes very agitated. The houses are about 200 feet apart and they all look pretty much the same with exception for an old brick ranch. Chills shiver down his spine when she blurted out “stop.” Clyde finds his foot on the brake. There is something in that old brick house that sticks out in her mind. “I know this house,” she keeps repeating.
As Clyde flips on the lights, he asks, “How do you know this house?”
Her face scrunches up as she digs the memories out of her brain, “There used to be a swing set just behind the garage over there. Neighbors have a big dog. That tree is much bigger, but it is the same and the front window; that was my room.”
He pulls the cruiser in the drive and asks, “You used to live here.”
“Yes, I am sure of it” is her confident response.
This is the house of John McDougal. Clyde met him in the past and knows he is a widower. There is a great force pushing him out of the car. Clyde is not a religious man, but something or someone is telling him to investigate. As he approaches the front door, John comes out. Clyde explains the events of the morning and he agrees to see the young girl.
As the two men approach the cruiser, John becomes visibly anxious. Clyde reaches inside and lets down the window to the back door. The old man and the young girl stare intently at each other for what seems to be an eternity. The silence is broken by the lost little girl saying, “I’m Carol McSue,” in a very demure voice.
John goes absolutely pallid at the sound of those words. It was if someone just stuck a knife to his heart. Clyde notices his hands start trembling, his eyes well up and then tears flow down his cheeks. In a shattered voice, he utters, “Where d-did you hear that name?”
Carol still being unsure, “I remember sitting on my daddy’s knee and him teaching me that name. I know it is not my true name, but is the only name I can remember. My daddy told me if she could remember my name, no one would ever be able to take from me. I hung onto that name my whole life. I knew if I could remember that name, some day I would find you again.”
Then John declares in a crackled voice “That’s my daughter - - that is my daughter.” He tries to open the car door and has no success until Clyde hits the unlock button. The two just hug each other with no more words, just that tight embrace.
Clyde radios for the Sergeant. He is upset that Clyde stopped until he explains the girl claims to be the daughter of McDougal. “John McDougal” the sergeant confirms in a questioning voice. “I will be right out there.”
Before anyone knows what is happening, there are state police and the sergeant at the house. The sergeant confirms John McDougal had a daughter kidnapped 12 years earlier. He explains that Mr. McDougal’s wife passed away and few weeks later, his daughter disappeared from the nursery school she attended.
Over the next few weeks, Clyde became an intricate part of the situation while he gathered the history of the case. All Carol could remember was Carol McSue and she lived on Spring Road. She remembered her daddy’s face and the house from the outside. She did not know what city, county or state. In her spare time, she would look for articles of little girls who went missing about twelve years ago. She tried to find the exact address but since John McDougal’s number was unlisted and his address remained a secret from her. She was convinced this was her daddy’s house and she was going to find it. Her only chance of finding her father was to run away and hope to spot the house on this road.
It had been three quarters of her life but she knew this was the house. She had hiked over five miles when Clyde took her off the road that morning. Her adoptive family told her that her dad was dead and her mom was very sick. This was the reason they were able to adopt her. They never listened to her when she told them her daddy was alive and her mom was dead.
Clyde interviewed John on several occasions. Twelve years ago, his wife died suddenly from a brain aneurism. She was just thirty years old and did not smoke nor drink. Woke up fine and dandy, collapsed at lunchtime, and was dead by dinner. He took two weeks off from work to adjust to life without his wife. He put his daughter in a day care center while he worked. Came to pick her up at five o’clock the first day back to work, and she was gone. Someone claiming to be her uncle had picked her up at three o’clock. In those 2-1/2 hours, there was no trace of her. There had not been a trace on her until that morning.
John explained that his daughter knew her name was Carol McDougal. Then tried to teach her middle name which came out as Carol McSue. He was trying to break her of this when she disappeared. In the past twelve years, he had never given up the dream of seeing his daughter again. She was as he pictured her being at age fifteen.
The adoptive family hired a lawyer to find them a child to adopt since they were not able to conceive on their own. They paid the lawyer $5000.00 for his time, paid another $5000.00 in state fees and a final $5000.00 for the mother medical bills. Never having been through the adoption procedures they thought this was normal. They did keep all the receipts with the adoption paperwork for posterity. Their adoption papers were all forged, and the lawyer died in prison five years ago for similar charges.
Luckily, for Carol McSue, her adoptive family and father are getting together and are working out arrangements for Carol to be with them and her father. The father, as it turns out is the man Carol remembered. Of all the cases Clyde will work, this one will always be his favorite.
Is Justice Finally Overcoming the Ford Valley Corruption?
Judge Sherman Ford, the patriarch of the Ford family is continuing to control and corrupt Ford County. The newly elected sheriff, Todd Mercer, and friends are slowly taking control
