Oak Park girl abducted by man
Oak Park girl abducted by man
Found unharmed on city’s northwest side
By BILL DWYER
A six-year-old Oak Park girl who had been the subject of an intense search by Oak Park police and Cook County K-9 units after disappearing from her back yard Saturday was found alone and unharmed on the city’s northwest side Saturday afternoon. [Click link for remainder of story]
One of my closest friends emailed me earlier with this story and I swear after reading it I felt like I could vomit. Maybe it’s because I have a six year-old daughter myself. I know many of us as parents, when we read a story involving a child who is the same age as ours, put ourselves in the story and it gets very upsetting. I can’t even imagine what hell it would be to realize my child is suddenly missing from our yard.
I’m not naive. I realize that this can happen anywhere. I still, however, naively had that knee-jerk reaction you experience when something like this happens in what is a normally very safe, wealthy city. You think to yourself that this usually happens in unsavory neighborhoods or to parents who don’t bother keeping an eye on their kids. But that’s not true. It happens anywhere you find a trusting child who comes in contact with a monster who has just enough charisma and a believable story to lure them away.
What scares me most is that Gracie is a very trusting, very social child who I could see maybe going with someone if they seemed the least bit trustworthy. I think the kids and I need to have the talk again. Thank God (or who/whatever you thank) that she was found alive and seemingly unharmed. They took her to the hospital to be examined and I pray that she wasn’t molested. Please let her be truly unharmed.
