Bianca's Story.. one of hope

Every 40 seconds a child goes missing somewhere in the United States. There are more than 460,000 missing children each year. Of those missing children, almost 1,500 of them are kidnapped.When most people think of abduction, they think of a stranger abduction. The victim generally does not know the perpetrator at all. The kidnapper violently attacks, takes, or lures the child into their custody. In a majority of cases, this occurs within ¼-mile of the child’s home.About 74 percent of the victims of non-family child abduction are girls. Acting quickly is critical. Seventy-four percent of abducted children who are ultimately murdered are dead within three hours of the abduction. 57 Percentage of children who come home alive after being abducted by strangers
On Christmas Eve, the 24th of Dec 2018, my 15 year old daughter, Bianca, went missing. Bianca had gotten a phone call from her boyfriend who broke up with her. She was upset and needed to cool off. She decided to take a walk around the gated community in which she was visiting with her grandparents for the holidays in Fort Myers Beach Florida. Last known sighting of Bianca on camera was about 1 pm that afternoon. Bianca says the last thing she remembers was a hand on her shoulder. We believe she was hit over the head and drugged and taken by car.
Bianca woke up the next day laying on a beach under a blue tarp with a man standing over her. She was given some kind of kool aid drink to drink. The next few days are a blur for Bianca and she remembers only bits and pieces. She remembers an old skinny woman with a very high pitched voice stroking her hair calling her baby. She also remembers a very tan man with little teeth and a white hat. Also she recalls two small kids, one maybe called Ana? Bianca says she was mostly unconscious or sleeping during this time (we believe she was highly drugged). She does remember being fed some kind of beef stew.
Meanwhile I was called the night Bianca went missing, being informed she had been gone a few hours. The next morning I left on a plane to Fort Myers. When I arrived it had been over 24 hours Bianca had been missing.The police had listed her as a runaway, because she left on her own will. There was never any Amber Alert issued becase for an Amber Alert there are certin guidelines that have to be met: Law Enforcement Confirms an Abduction, the child is at risk for death, There is enough descriptive information about the victim and the abduction for law enforcement to issue an AMBER Alert to assist in the recovery of the child, The abduction is of a child aged 17 years or younger and The child’s name and other critical data elements, including the Child Abduction flag, have been entered into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) system.
My father and youngest daughter, Asia, left after day 3 leaving my mother and I alone in Fort Myers searching for Bianca. We felt hopeless, because Bianca was listed as a runaway we felt no one was taking anything serious. News only did a small 5 second blurb on the news about her and barely anyone even knew she was missing! We made over 200+ flyers and walked up and down every inch of the beach and surrounding area handing out flyers telling everyone we could about Bianca. Police started to believe the worst, telling us they believe she had drown in one of the surrounding canals and were out searching the canals for a body. Every inch of me tried to keep up hope and pray for a good outcome.
It rained the night of day four and my mother and I were heart broken. They had planned to send out the search dogs the next morning, and we knew there would be little to find her scent with the recent rain. Mom and I took turns breaking down in tears. We were at our emotional and physical wits end. Both of us had not slept in 5 days and food would not stay down. We were angry at the world. I can not begin to tell you the pain of having your child go missing. There are no words in the human language.
Day five my mother and I were recovering from a long day walking the beach about to set out and look again when the door on the bottom the stairs came flying open. I will never forget the screams and sounds that came next. My 15 year daughter had escaped . She had found her way back. Bianca woke that morning to find herself alone on the beach, and while she was extremely drugged and dehydrated she took her chance and ran like a mad woman. She ran about what she believes was 20 mins on the highway back to us. How she did it, no one knows.. Or how she knew the way. We believe God was looking out for her. She kept screaming they took me, they took me!
Head to toe drenched in sweat and dressed in clothes that were not hers, my baby girl was back safe in my arms. Bianca had a GIANT sunflower painted on her right left done in probably about 20 layers of acrylic paints. It went from almost her ankle to the high thigh. On her other foot she had 3 little hearts with numbers in them painted. (this is often a sign of sex trafficking) 911 was called and Bianca was questioned for hours and hours by both 100 police members and also a child physiologist. Than finally she was taken to a hospital for a look over where they did a bunch of blood work, eye exams and other tests. The next morning she had a rape kit done.
We learned Bianca had been assaulted. Something no mother wants to hear. But we hope this gave the police DNA to catch the bastards who took my baby girl. We hadn't heard anything from the police department that next day and believed they were looking in the wrong place. Bianca was extremely brave and took my mother and I to the place where she had been kept. IT was exactly like she had described. Under a bridge.. Hidden by woods. There was a blue tarp, a rocking lawn chair and a small fishing boat. We saw no one in sight and took a few photos using my mothers phone. We called the police department and they did confirm to us that yes, they had been to the same place.
IT wasn't till nearly two days later that we left Fort Myers. We were told to stick around incase law enforcement had more questions for Bianca. But after those two days we heard not a peep from the department and couldn't wait to get the hell home. I am so blessed to have amazing co-workers who helped us book a flight and get back to our home.
Bianca is a brave girl and I tell her how proud I am of her 100 times a day. I learned to cherish second chances, give my loved ones 1000 kisses every day and always tell them how much they mean to me. I know now God is real and believe he played a huge part in bringing my baby home safe and sound. Bianca is lucky and I have more compassion for those families out there still searching for their loved ones.
I urge all parents to hold their little ones tight. You never know when your life will change forever.