WEDNESDAY TOP NEWS LINKS:
Video: Ohio story brings hope for
family of missing Spring teen
(KHOU 11 News)
Ben Nuckols, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Kidnapping survivors Jaycee Dugard and Elizabeth Smart have words of wisdom for the three women found this week in Cleveland years after their disappearances.
Dugard was abducted from a California bus stop in 1991 at age 11 and was held captive for 18 years in a backyard, where she gave birth to two children conceived by rape. She made an oblique reference Tuesday to the Cleveland case as she accepted an award in Washington from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
“What an amazing time to be talking about hope, with everything that’s happening,” she said in her brief remarks.
She urged the hundreds of people at the annual awards gala not to give up on missing children.
“Just urge yourself to care,” she said.
The Cleveland women, Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight, disappeared about a decade ago, when they were in their teens or early 20s. They were rescued Monday after Berry kicked out the bottom portion of a locked screen door and used a neighbor’s telephone to call 911. The owner of the home and his two brothers have been arrested, but no charges have been filed.
Dugard, in a statement released earlier through her publicist, said the women need a chance to heal and reconnect with the world. She said that the human spirit is resilient and that the case reaffirms that people should never give up hope.
Dugard’s mother, Terry Probyn, said in Washington that she understood what the relatives of the Cleveland victims were going through.
“I feel the same relief and the same joy that I felt when Jaycee was returned to me safely after 18 hellish years,” she said. “I never doubted for one minute that I would someday be reunited with my daughter.”
The CEO of the center, John Ryan, praised the vigilance of investigators in Cleveland, saying they followed up on tips and never forgot about the missing women.
“There are other missing children out there that are only a phone call away from getting away from their predators,” Ryan said. “I have every hope and confidence that this will lead to future recoveries.”
(More of this story at Yahoo News)
OTHER RELATED STORIES:
• Ohio case offers hope for parents of missing girl (KPRC 2 News)
• Disturbing tale of Cleveland (Ohio) captivity emerges (USA Today)
• Cleveland Girl Born in Captivity ‘Smiling,’ Eating Popsicles (ABC News)
• Exclusive: Jaycee Dugard’s Mother on Abducted Children and a Parent’s Greatest Fear (Time)
LOCAL AREA HEADLINES:
- Keystone XL Oil Refineries Would Produce ‘Extra Dose’ Of Pollution, Activist Warns (Huffington Post)
- Houston nonprofit group arms citizens in Oak Forest neighborhood (KHOU 11 News)
- Houston Gets New Rules For Sharing Roads with Runners And Bikers (KUHF Public Radio)
- 5 confirmed cases of E. coli, 2 children hospitalized (KPRC 2 News)
- 5-year-old accidentally shoots brother, 7, with rifle (Chron.com)
- Texas Equusearch Mounted Search and Recovery seeks more than $100K in expenses from Casey Anthony (KTRK 13 News)
- Hotze to File Suit Over Federal Health Reform (Texas Tribune)
- USDA investigates dangerous, African snail found in Houston (KPRC 2 News)
STATE HEADLINES:
- What’s Next For Major Proposal To Change Testing, Graduation Plans In Texas Schools (KUHF Public Radio)
- ‘Texas solution’ to Medicaid expansion on the ropes (Austin Statesman)
- Cameras in the classroom: Keeping a watchful eye on special needs students (KHOU 11 News)
- Texas Groundwater Levels Suffer Sharp Drop, Study Finds (State Impact Texas)