Now You See Her (18 page)

Remarkably, the girl suffered only minor abrasions and dehydration, and was found just one mile from her dormi- tory at Starwood, the exclusive arts academy where she is a student.

William Flaxen, director of the Department of Public Safety in Black Sparrow Lake, said Hope was rushed to St. Mary’s Hospital early Monday, after a volunteer rescue tracker, Kavanaugh Hill, and her tracking Saint Bernard, Luther, found the girl in a shal- low ditch about a mile from her dorm, not far past an aban- doned hunting cabin.

Her condition is described as good.

Armed police officers imme- diately surrounded the area as Hope was removed in an ambulance, in the belief that her abductor might be appre- hended nearby. No one was found in the area, however. It became apparent early in the search that someone had recently used the cabin, Flaxen said, because there were signs of habitation, such as food wrappings and rem- nants of a recent fire in the woodstove. Flaxen said he thinks that the individual responsible for Hope’s kidnap- ping probably was using the

cabin as a refuge.

Spirits rose when searchers came across a sleeping bag and other items in the hunting cabin early on the second morning of the rescue effort. They at first believed that Hope might have been using it

as a hiding place.

But a search of the cabin, while it turned up beer cans and other trash as well as the sleeping bag, yielded no sign of the missing girl.

Flaxen also said that the remains of a roll of duct tape used to bind Hope’s hands and feet were found on the piece of ground where she lay, nearly out of sight in a shallow dry ditch under a small bridge about 200 yards from the cabin. Hope had pushed and dragged herself halfway out of the ditch during an epic strug- gle that included a night when the temperature plummeted to ten degrees F.

“She’s a real fighter,” said Flaxen.

Hope was treated for minor cuts and exposure, given IV fluids, and released to her par- ents at approximately 4 p.m. today.

“She’s in remarkably great shape for being out there four days,” said Flaxen. “It’s some- thing of a miracle. She’s a very strong young woman.”

Through tears, Marian

Romano, Hope’s mother, who also was treated for exhaus- tion at St. Mary’s, told reporters, “We’re so grateful to Miss Hill and to all the stu- dents and police and volun- teers who helped find our girl, including our friends from Bellamy and the staff and students at Starwood for their hard work and prayers. By the fourth day, even the police were starting to give up. It just seemed like she’d vanished into thin air.”

Based on a description and composite sketch, police are seeking a stocky, dark-skinned man of Indian or Latino descent for questioning in connection with the abduc- tion.

Volunteers and police, including detectives from as far away as Minneapolis and Detroit, as well as FBI and Michigan Bureau of Investiga- tion officials, had combined in one of the largest searches ever to have been carried out in the north woods area of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

The only comparable case

was that of Timmy Underhove, a 6-year-old boy who wandered away from his family’s camp- site with the family dog in 1999 and was found unharmed three days later, apparently protected by the dog, which the boy said had been attacked by a bear.

Underhove’s father and older brother were among those who came to Black Sparrow Lake to search through Friday night for Hope. Helicopters and light planes, from both local glider clubs and the Michigan National Guard, conducted flyovers of the area Saturday and Sunday, after police and canine units did an exhaustive search, including interviews with all of Hope’s classmates and

instructors.

Hope was first reported missing by her dorm advisor at the prestigious Starwood Academy of the Performing Arts, Lisa Zurin, when she failed to show up for meals on Thursday.

“At first I thought it was nerves over opening night. But

I decided to check, and I’m so glad I did. I can’t tell you what a dark cloud hung over this place when she was missing,” Zurin said today. “Hope is a new student, and no one knows her very well, but she was one of our own.”

Zurin said that Hope had seemed troubled in recent weeks, an observation that was corroborated by Starwood dean of women Andrea Ross Lobelier, who had spoken with Hope on two occasions, once about a disturbing weight loss early in the semester and once about Hope’s tendency to leave the dorm late at night—a strict violation of academy rules.

Warren Godchalk, chief of security for the school, said that it was forbidden for young students such as Hope even to go running alone, but that Hope, as well as others, some- times slipped “through the loopholes” with that rule.

“In her case, it proved to be a dangerous risk,” Godchalk said. “It shows that people can be vulnerable even in broad

daylight.” Hope said she went out to jog at dawn, around 6 a.m.

In retrospect, Lobelier and others said that Hope’s appar- ent mishap may have stemmed from two disturbing encounters she confided in her mother, but did not tell school authorities.

Flaxen said that Hope allegedly was accosted by a man who grabbed her just outside her dorm while she was on an early-morning jog, knocked her unconscious with a “padded” blunt object of some kind, and left her tied in the ditch.

According to Hope, the man spoke of a ransom he hoped to realize from Hope’s parents, Mark and Marian Romano of Bellamy, Illinois. No ransom note, however, was ever received.

“The guy apparently got cold feet when we reacted so quickly,” Flaxen said. “That meant even a more potentially dangerous situation for the girl, because there were no clues as to her whereabouts at all. She could have been here, or she could have been in

California by now.”

Despite apparent inconsis- tencies in the case, which included security-cam footage of Hope apparently either look- ing for someone or trying to leave her dorm at approxi- mately 1:30 a.m. on Thursday, Flaxen said the case was being considered a kidnapping. He also said that a piece of evi- dence recovered from the hunting cabin—details of which are being withheld— would be key in finding the individual responsible.

Those who may have seen the driver of an older, dark pickup truck, answering the description given by Hope, are asked to contact the Black Sparrow Lake Department of Public Safety or Warren Godchalk at 505-555-6206.

The same anonymous tip line that was set up for infor- mation leading to Hope’s recovery, 505-555-1111, is still in operation while police search for leads to finding her captor. An anonymous reward fund for such information, set up at the State Bank of Black

Sparrow Lake, already has accumulated contributions in the amount of more than

$2,000.

A service of thanksgiving is scheduled for well-wishers and friends at Six Spruces Chapel in Black Sparrow Lake for 2

p.m. Saturday afternoon. Hope is expected to attend. She is resting from her ordeal but