The story below was written by Billie. This is her story.
To effectively tell you my story about “missing person” experience I have to take you all the way back to mid 1980’s. In that time I was not yet a teen and my mother was in law enforcement. My uncle was a missing person (still is today) and it was believed that drug involvement had led to his disappearance. My mother went on a road trip to multiple states talking to EVERYONE including law enforcement that had handled the case, witnesses, people who might know something-anything, following up on leads, visiting potential locations of his body…and I tagged along. We did not find my uncle, my mom has since passed away not knowing, and other family member are left questioning every day.
In 1992, I was a missing person and dubbed as a “runaway.” Bear with me through the next details as my memory of these events is very splotchy due to the fear I had induced upon me! Also, my decade older adult sister was played into this mix and her story is hers to tell not mine and let me be very clear that she was conned and I harbor no ill will toward her or my mom or other people, only my abuser.
One August day I was sexually assaulted in a home on the outskirts of town by a man that had befriended my mom over the last few months. You see, I was a naive good kid being raised by a single parent that was in law enforcement, I had a lot of trust in the world and people, and had never more than kissed a boy at the age of 15! I told no one! Who would believe me? What would I say? How do I start the conversation? I thought people have bigger problems and my mother helps them every day!
One week later this 40 something year old man put his plan into action and the rest is a lot! At my mom’s house he told me that I was going with him or he would kill my family, I knew he had a gun and I believed him to be ex-military (ultimately a lie). He made me write a runaway note to which I complied. We, I say VERY lightly, took my mom’s car and an envelope of cash. First stop was the house where I was previously assaulted and I believe these people too were conned, some things were given to my captor. Next stop was a car dealership in a town a little over an hour away where a car was purchased with the envelope of cash. Next stop was a motel in a neighboring state where he cut and died my hair, and I was given another name. From there we took a bus to Missoula, Montana. Over the next 4 months he practiced his craft, manipulating everyone around, sometimes referring to me as his daughter and sometimes his wife. A lot of time was spent in libraries, hotels, churches & their basements, polygamy communities, and family homes that he befriended in Missoula and surrounding towns. The whole time sexually assaulting me at his will and using the coercion tactic of threatening to kill my adult sister. He made me do things that I had no knowledge of! He also made it very clear that if I spoke out and I got taken away from him that he would follow through on his initial threat and be back for me when I turned 18. I turned 16 while in this captivity, no normal 16 year old birthday or Christmas and certainly not with those I loved.
One day 4 months in, I believed law enforcement was in the house across the street from the house we were at, I did not say anything to him when he caught me looking out the window for too long and I pretended to be admiring the feet of snow. I silently prayed and hoped that I was right, I was trained from a young age to be aware of surroundings. A few days later he had walked out the back door and I had gone out the front door and down the steps, I heard someone yell “freeze, don’t move” and all I saw was guns pointed at me, one after another surrounding the property, I dropped flat, full body and face first in the snow, I’m guessing this was a full fear body reaction. Next thing I knew an officer was on top of me, cuffed me, picked me up and put me in the back of a police car. This officer was the only one I remember speaking to for quite some time. In the police car he asked me if my name was Billie, which I firmly denied (fear), and then he showed me a flyer with my picture & name and said I believe this is you, and I still denied. I remember a blip of sitting in a chair at the police station and being in a cell with a metal toilet and bunk beds dressed in orange detention clothing. This officer came to the cell once, asked me if I believed in God and said this might be a good read and handed me a bible. I remember that as the ONLY act of kindness I received and if I could speak to this officer today I would hug him and tell him thank you for caring! I do not remember anything else there nor how I got back to Arizona, I now know my brain handled it all as one big trauma and is protecting me. At one point I recall sitting in an office with a judge asking me if this man did things to me and forced me to go with him which I told the truth that yes he did, and then afterwards in a courtroom with him sitting at a table facing me to which I denied everything out of fear. I could NOT put my families lives on the line and I could NOT do it in the face of my abuser who had made many threats that I considered real! He was to my knowledge NEVER charged with anything and walked away free. Once I was back in Arizona I was under the care of CPS in 2 different homes, as well as a family home of a high school friend, was then shipped to my dad’s in New Mexico. For roughly 2 months I was not allowed to see or speak to my mom and my close in age sister at home. You see, law enforcement considered me a runaway and would not do anything to find me, my mom had to put theft charges on me in order to get them to look for me, and there was plenty of speculation around my moms involvement with this man as well as being in law enforcement. All the while, I was a pregnant 16 year old that had never had consensual sex! That’s right! The first thing my mom did when she got custody back of me in February 1993 was get me to the city for an abortion, I was 19 weeks so it was a very painful and scary 3 day process. I spent the next year in some very intense counseling. I found out this man’s identity was not real, he was never military, was not the age he said, nor was the name he went by his real name. I had to redefine who I was as a person, what I believed in, what I knew to be true and not true. I had to heal from a town of speculation and judgement, everyone had their own questions and opinions. I had to work extra hard to get my schooling back on track! I had to grieve the loss of an unborn child as well as relationships with people. I had to accept that CPS and law enforcement do not always do the right thing while still committing to be a law abiding citizen. I overcame all of these hard things, and others will too. Life went on for me thankfully! Occasionally when I go back to my hometown I get asked a question or two even after 30+ years! I went on to graduate college, get married, and have a beautiful daughter! These things still sit in the back of my mind, and I do everything I can to help others when I can without judgement.
Fast forward to December 2025! Being that this was very recent I will only recap. I see a post on social media from one of my friends that her 16 year old daughter is listed as a runaway/missing person. I immediately picked up the phone and asked what I can do to help, and partnered up with this “only” and single parent of 3 children. Because this child left on her own volition in a vehicle to a family members house, law enforcement classified her as a runaway, and I was told this by a Sergeant. This family member refused to cooperate with law enforcement. In 5 very long weeks I watched CPS and 3 city law enforcement units fail this mother and child, over and over and over! I had a front row seat to the heartbreak this family endured! We quickly got this child listed on every social media page possible and kept it updated, which is a full time job in itself, and we had to take swift action for speculation & false accusations. CPS on week 2 was sitting face to face with the child at this uncooperative adults home and failed to remove the child. It took over 3 weeks to get a detective assigned to the case and only after contacting the attorney generals office for advice and filing a complaint with internal affairs. With the exception of one city (shout out to Surprise PD), every call into law enforcement either went unreturned or was extremely lacking in timely response. A lot of them would not speak to me so I was only able to provide them information and ask them to call parent back, it would be nice for parents to be able to designate people they can talk to because it is TOO MUCH for parents to handle. End of week 2, law enforcement filed a felony case against this uncooperative adult(s) for custodial interference by third party, we are STILL waiting as of end of February 2026 for the Maricopa County prosecutor to do something with the charges! These charges as a felony have to go to the county prosecutor instead of city and they said 2-3 months, what?!?! We quickly posted flyers in ‘likely to be’ areas, we reached out to schools and libraries, and WE chased down every single lead – not law enforcement. At one point WE had a confirmed sighting in a grocery store parking lot, I personally spoke to the manager who said they would absolutely turn over video footage to law enforcement, that cities law enforcement would not “step on the toes” of the other city that had the case and although requested multiple times the law enforcement for the city that had the case never retrieved it! Why?! This could have provided a lot of crucial information! We were told very early on that it was on the family to find & recover this child and that could not have proved to be any more true! The list is long of those who didn’t want to get involved and couldn’t/wouldn’t do the right thing. With the help of of some high integrity people in the community and information/resources from incredible organizations (MissingNoMore, Az ROC Foundation, Missing In America Network), WE were able to pick her up and bring her to safety and with the least amount of trauma possible. I wholeheartedly believe that if we had not recovered this child when we did it would not have been long before she went down a more extremely dangerous path, I am fortunate to say that she has an opportunity for a very bright future ahead.