No Clues In Case Of Missing Girl

If you were watching the hit CBS drama "Without a Trace" on Thursday, Dec. 15, 2005, you probably saw the missing girl from Washington State profiled at the end of the show.

The little girl on the missing poster is 10-year-old Adre-Anna Jackson. She vanished nearly two weeks ago and her family and authorities fear the worse.
The Early Show national correspondent Hattie Kauffman has her story.

Adre-Anna is a fourth-grader whose mom says she was just blossoming into her own.

"How could a child disappear so without a trace?" Yvette Gervais asked. "She's a happy girl. We'd see her bouncing all over the place. Lately, she was getting into her pogo stick. She'd be pogoing out in the road there."

Adre-Anna's room sits empty now and police are mystified about her disappearance.

"We have no good, solid information that leads us one way or the other," said Lt. Bret Farrar of the Lakewood Police Dept. "So we're investigating every aspect — the abduction aspect, the run away aspect. I mean anything and everything is on the table at this point."

Gervais saw her daughter off to school the day she disappeared.

"Yeah. Then we even told her before she went out the door 'Go get a hat on. It's cold out there.' So she got her little hat on, she showed me the hat and that was the last time I saw her," she said tearfully.

Her mom says the 10-year-old was walking down the road on her way to school on Dec. 2, 2005. What her family didn't know was school was closed for a snow day. It wasn't until after 2:30 p.m. that the family noticed she was missing.

"I started walking around talking to other kids" Gervais said. "I went to all her friends' houses (asking), 'Have you seen her?' "

Finally, at 4:30 p.m., police were called.

"It's a huge handicap for us," Farrar said. "That's a lot of elapsed time for something or some things to occur. So it hampers the investigation. Obviously, it makes it tougher."

Police and volunteers canvassed the neighborhood searching for the girl. They used dogs to follow Adre-Anna's scent from her home toward the school. They tracked her scent down to American Lake.

Police said it could have been an old scent trail, as Adre-Anna had been to the lake days earlier. Still, the FBI used sonar to search the water and police are investigating a boat they found that has no apparent owner.

Another immediate focus is the 51 sex offenders who live in the small community of Lakewood.

Gervais says she believes someone took her daughter.

John Federici agrees. He's the man Adre-Anna calls dad and he believes she is still alive.

"Oh, absolutely," he said. "There's no doubt about it. They're feeding her and taking care of her. She's a cute little girl and there's no doubt about it. I have that feeling. I feel pretty strong about it. I can sense it. I'm pretty sure. So just bring her home — drop her off at the local a church and we will appreciate it."

Three years ago, Federici was convicted of misdemeanor assault for punching the little girl.

Does he feel like police are unfairly looking at him or all family members first?

"They look at all family members first, so let's let that go. I'm not going to worry about that. My main objective is to find her," Federici said.

Police say though no one is considered a suspect, no one has been ruled out, either.

"Nothing's off the table," Farrar said. "Everybody is being looked at."

Meanwhile, Adre-Anna's mom pours over her drawings and letters. She's waiting for the phone to ring … hoping for the best and fearing the worst.

"My daughter is a good spirit," she says, "I just want her home."

Adre-Anna was last seen wearing blue jeans, a blue shirt, white tennis shoes, and a puffy black coat. She may have been carrying a black and pink backpack.

Anyone with information on her whereabouts is urged to call 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678).