LOCAL TEEN MISSING

Still missing. After all this time. Amidst speculations and stated fears. John and I ate breakfast in a downtown cafe one day last week. A reporter and photographer roamed among the diners. "Do you know the girl?" they asked us. When we admitted that we didn't, they asked if we had comments. "Yes," I said. "I believe our local police are doing their best trying to find her." Any more comments? "We're all united, praying for Hailey's safe return."

She could still return, though she disappeared December 27 or 28. Someone reported spotting her in Odessa last week. It could be true...if she really is a runaway. I choose to believe that and that she'll return.

People keep searching and praying.

Local Teen Disappears
by Marion Kelley Bullock

I live in a small Texas town. About 4,000 population. Nice, safe -- the kind of town you'd feel good about living in, raising your kids. Right?

Then, right after Christmas, a 13-year-old girl disappeared. Reportedly, she told her mother's boyfriend she was going to spend the night at a friend's house. When she failed to come home the next day, her mother checked and found that she had not -- after all -- been with her friend.

Now, law enforcement officials search a wooded area near the girl's home. Residents comb another area, while helicopters search from the air. Evidence has been collected from the missing girl's home, family members have taken polygraph tests and the FBI has become involved. Classmates have held prayer vigils. School students and others are handing out fliers door to door. On them is the picture of a sweet, innocent-looking 13-year-old girl, a little girl who went missing two days after Christmas.