The Day My Son Was Taken

I remember when I thought that living in the countryside was safer than living in the city. After all I had pretty much lived in the country side my entire life. I had very few neighbors. Definitely no neighborhood kids to play with.

We only had 1 neighbor that was across the street, still a block and a half distance from our house. That neighbor was an old farmer and just really bitter . He had killed several of our pets over the years. He would claim they were chasing his livestock, but they weren't. We couldn't do anything about it given that we lived in the country .

The county didn't care. It's a he said/she said case at that point. I think our neighbor enjoyed it, killing animals that is. I remember one time, my dad was talking to him at the edge of our drive way and he had our Chesapeake Bay Retriever next to him. I was young, maybe 8 or 9 at the time. They were having a friendly conversation and all of a sudden, my neighbor tells my dad, " You know. I think I might have to shoot your dog. I don't like the way he's looking at me." I watched from about 20 feet away as my dad and him exchanged words. All I could think was what kind of a person says that? We kept our distance from that neighbor. Throughout my childhood and teen years, I enjoyed living in the country, it was nice to go outside and not have to worry about other neighbors being right next to you. We had 11 acres. It was nice. I would frequently suntan as a teenager in a desperate attempt to get a tan. It was something I could never achieve though. Still, I loved the feeling of the sun on my skin. It just felt so good. At the time, I felt completely safe.

Time passed and I grew a bit older and had a child of my own. My husband and I at the time had just moved back home from living a few states away. It was May 25th 2011. We had been living at my dad's house for almost 2 months. We were staying there until we could find a place of our own. That particular day was kind of cooler. It had just rained the day before. A really good storm. Our son had just turned 3. He loved hanging around Grandpa, my dad. He was always helping him the best he could. Around 3pm that day my dad was working on his truck while our son played right next to it. I can remember seeing him lift him up to see how he changes the oil in the truck. I was watching tv with my husband when my dad came inside to grab a beer, he was inside the house for not even a minute. He walked back outside and my son was gone and so were the dogs that we had. It didn't make any sense. He couldn't have gotten far.

At first, i thought my dad was joking. He would often try to prank people so it wasn't a stretch to think that. When I realized he was serious, I panicked. I took off with no shoes on running everywhere, I checked around the house the ponds thru the field, nothing. No sign of my son or the dogs. It was so weird. How did he disappear that fast? It just wasn't possible unless he had been taken. I called 911, my hands shaking, out of breath. Still running and screaming for my son. We lived in a huge valley so my voice carried far and wide. Within a few minutes I could here the sirens coming. I felt so out of breath. My worst fear was coming true and I felt so terrible. Afraid of what has happened to my son. What if someone took him? Who would take him? Oh my god what if he's dead? Something inside me told me to search behind the woods, to keep going. So I did. I came upon a clearing where a house was and saw my dogs running around this house playing. That's a bit odd I thought as I walked around to the front door of the house, noticing that the front door was wide open but the screen door was shut.

I know they heard me calling for my son I thought as I walked a bit further and saw my son on the roof of this person's house. It was a somewhat ground level roof but what struck me as odd was the window that went out onto the roof and the fact that my son had not a scratch on him or even mud. He was however missing a shoe. My feet were wet and muddy and I had scratches from the trees on my arms and legs. Something didn't add up here.

"Hi mommy!" My son said to me as i approached him. I told him to get down but he wanted to stay. I said, "it's not safe we have to go."

Just then, a man in his 50's approached the door of the house. Without coming outside he asked if he could help me.

"Yeah," i replied. "I'm Trying to figure out how the fuck my son is on your roof." The man said nothing and retreated from door into his house.

Moments later, my dad came out of the woods with a shot gun. He said there was a fresh minnow trap in our pond in the woods . My dad didn't fish our ponds. He said there were footprints all over . I explained what happened and my dad pounded on the door. The man came to the door unbothered which was so strange to me. My dad demanding to know why there was a fresh minnow trap in his pond or why his grand son was on his roof. He asked the man his name. He wouldn't tell us. He said he was a truck driver. No kids. No wife. Not even a dog. Our dogs seemed to know him though which again was odd. We left his house without answers. As we were walking back go the house, i asked my son how did he get on that roof? He said, "He carried me." I was sick to my stomach. I knew it. The cops were waiting for us at our house. When we got back to our house, which is almost a quarter of a mile away from where we found my son, i explained that i was certain this man had taken my son and i wanted to press kidnapping charges. They flat out refused to. They said since we hadn't seen him do it they weren't going to. I was furious. "What the fuck do you mean you're not going to press charges? He obviously took him!"

When I refused to just let it go, the cop in charge quickly snipped at me. "Well if you keep pressing the issue I can charge you with negligence if that's what you want." Seriously? I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

It was then I knew I could never trust a cop again. They had failed me again. Who knows how many other kids that man has taken? I was and still am afraid to know.

We looked everywhere for his shoe. We didn't find it until almost 6 months later. It was clean. It was in an area of the woods where we had previously looked . Interesting. How could a shoe have been out there in the elements for 6 months and be completely clean like it was found? It couldn't because it hadn't been out there for 6 months. Somebody put it there. I'm sure you could guess who.

The most unsettling part I had found out after everything was all said and done was the day that this all had occurred was in fact a holiday, national missing kids day . How ironic, right? Yeah, I thought so too. That day changed the way I parented forever. That day is always in the back of my mind. It scares me to think what would have happened if I didn't keep looking like I did.

Thank god for that maternal instinct. Always trust your gut and never for a moment take your eyes off your kids because they can be taken in less than a minute's time. That's all it takes.