The Search for Rachel, a father's journal

Thursday, Jan. 10

Friday, Jan. 11

Saturday, Jan.12

About 8:45 a.m. people began to arrive. Janet and a neighbor went out on horseback. Our neighbor Mitch and another person, also on horseback, went another direction. I drew maps of the area and marked her jogging path. I assigned each team of two or more one street to search. I told them to go as far off the road as they felt comfortable but to be safe.

My dad notified the rest of the family in Marble Falls and they called me. My mom said the she had a good picture of Rachel that she took on Christmas. I asked her to have copies made and bring them. In the meantime I made some missing person flyers using another picture of Rachel. I gave copies of the flyers to all of the search teams.

A group of Wildfire employees went out in two teams. They came back around 10:00 a.m. after covering the first street. Polly, a coworker friend of Rachel, asked if we wanted her to call the sheriff. She said that the sheriff came into Wildfire a lot and she knew him. I told Polly yes.

My family began arriving from Austin and Marble Falls. Both cities are about an hour away from our house. They immediately went out to search. When my mother arrived I scanned the picture of Rachel that she had and made new flyers. I did not know it then but that picture would be copied tens of thousands of times and would appear on dozens of newscasts.

My brother David said he talked to a couple that was out walking. They went walking that same time everyday. They saw Rachel at least twice on Thursday. The last time was within 500 yards of our house.

About 10:45 a.m., a captain called and told me that a deputy and investigator were on the way. The deputy arrived at around 11:30 a.m. He started writing a report and looking through Rachel's cell phone calls. I had already done that and called the last people that talked to her.

I told him that the only things that were missing were Rachel's jogging clothes. I also told him that we had told the first sergeant that we found Rachel's running shoes at home. It turns out that those were our other daughter JoAnn's shoes.

He was convinced that Rachel had left on her own and she would walk in the door any minute or call us from somewhere she went with a new boyfriend. We both told him that she would not have left without her cell phone, wallet, credit cards, money and clothes. He didn't seem to get it.

He told me to call all of my searchers in because they were bringing dogs out and it would affect the scent. I called in everyone but the two horse teams. The deputy and I put together a timeline for Thursday. Rachel's boyfriend Greg called around 9:15 and woke Rachel up. They got disconnected a couple of times but finished their conversation. That was the last time anyone would talk to Rachel. After that Rachel must have gotten up and gone for her jog. Several people saw her jogging between 10:00 and 11:00 a.m. After that there was nothing.

More people and law enforcement officers started showing up. The sheriff came and introduced himself. It turns out his wife teaches at the high school with Janet. We gave an investigator a list of Rachel's friends and ex-boyfriends.

The sheriff's office set up a command post. The dogs came into our house, got Rachel's scent from some of her clothes and they took off to search. By 3:00 p.m. we had around 100 people ready to search. The sheriff's department started sending out teams.

The sheriff's public relations person, Wendy, told us that the media had been notified. We didn't have to talk to them but she said it would be good. They arrived and interviewed Janet and me one at a time. The sheriff was also interviewed. It was a very difficult thing to do but it was a necessary one.

Janet and I met Gloria for the first time. She is the victim's service representative for the sheriff's department. She would turn out to be our main interface to the sheriff as well as a good friend.

The neighbor called about the psychic. Janet and I decided to talk to him. What could it hurt? The neighbor went to get the psychic. I will call him Mr. P.

The searchers found nothing that day. My family searched all day. Many of them left at the last minute to drive back to Marble Falls changing clothes on the way.

Law enforcement and searchers left around dark. A wave of helplessness entered me. That feeling would stay for months.

I have to mention a warning for the rest of today's entry. It involves a psychic and some disturbing text. I am a software engineer, a scientist, and it's hard for me to believe in "feelings" such as Mr P has. Janet and I listened to Mr P only because we love Rachel and want her back. We didn't want to ignore any possibilities. Scientific investigation and search methods are always the best way to proceed.

The neighbor and Mr. P arrived. The neighbor's sister and mother came over also. Mr P showed Janet and myself a lot of letters of recommendation. He started "feeling" Rachel. He said she was abducted, that she didn't leave on her own. Also he said the man was not scary looking and she did not know him.

After a while he said that he should record what he was feeling. He had brought a tape recorder and turned it on. He entered the observations that he had up to that point. He asked to hold something of Rachels and picked up one of her shoes.

He got strong feelings from it. He said that the man had a gun and drove a pickup.

He drew some locations on a Williamson County map and said that the abductor frequented this areas often and had friends over here. He also felt that Rachel was either blindfolded or drugged.

Rachel's boyfriend Greg called. He was flying to Austin that next day. We paid for his ticket. We knew he had to come.

Mr. P asked to be driven around because that he could probably feel the spot that she was taken from. A news team was set up on the corner of our street. I didn't know it at the time but they were going to do a live report at 10:00 p.m. and then cut to taped footage of Janet and me. I thought they might be trying to get a shot of our family.

I went in a car with Mr P and a driver and sat in the back seat. Mr P sat in front. Two others went in another car. We drove around the neighborhood. Mr P felt Rachel's presence but not the spot of the abduction. He kept talking about a fence with a closed gate and a house that you could see from the gate. I had them drive down the road where she was last spotted. Still nothing. We finally drive down a road that I didn't think Rachel ran on. He got a feeling there.

We picked up the other two people and they sat in the back with me. We drove back to that last street. Mr P got out and walked around in front of the gate there. He got back in the car and said that was the abduction site.

Mr P paused a minute and then said he had something that he didn't know he if should tell me about it. I told him that I wanted to know everything. He then told me that the man was involved in pornography and that's why he took Rachel. She was being drugged and used for movies. My fist clinched and I got mad and scared at the same time. How could someone do this? I wanted to kill them.

We drove to County Road 255 near Reunion Ranch. Mr P said the man came here. Then we drove to Liberty Hill. He said the man had friends here but did not live here. He felt he lived on CR 255 and asked to be driven to the post office that services that area.

I thought for a minute and decided that the Andice Post Office would serve the CR 255 area. We drove to Andice Post Office. On the way Mr P talked about a small white church with a white steeple. We passed one church but it wasn't white. When we got to the Andice Post Office Mr P said the man stood right on the porch there. He went inside and felt that the man had a post office box there and used it for his pornography business.

We got back into the car and he mentioned the white church again. We turned the corner and not 100 yards from the Post Office stood at small white church with a small white steeple. Chills went through my body.

I didn't sleep again. Too many worries.

Sunday, Jan. 13

With the news coverage around 150 people showed up to search today. Many of my co-workers including my manager and his manager came. Family members that attended the wedding in Marble Falls last night came back. All of them but the new bride and groom. Many students and teachers from Georgetown High School and the other schools came also. Neighbors and strangers also helped.

Two new investigators from the sheriff's office came by early in the morning. One talked to me and one to my wife Janet. It still seemed like they thought Rachel might have left on her own. After interviewing over 10 friends and family members of Rachel I would have thought they would have gotten the picture by now.

The deputies put police tape all over our front yard. No one was allowed in. Even Janet and I only had limited access.In the afternoon one of the sergeants told me they wanted to search our house and cars. I had to sign a release. It suddenly felt like we were suspects although Janet and I were both at work when Rachel disappeared.

Janet and I did more interviews and told searchers thank you as they went out. Neighbors that had been out of town for the weekend returned to find the neighborhood filled with people.

Rana, my ex-officemate, offered to contact the "America's Most Wanted" television show. I told her to please do so.

The Red Cross set up a food and water station at a neighbor's house. I went down there to thank them at the end of the day. I also thanked the searchers. One of the Red Cross Employees was a counselor and asked me if I wanted to chat. I talked to him a few minutes and asked him if he would talk with our other daughter JoAnn. JoAnn agreed to meet with him.

Rachel's boyfriend. Greg, finally arrived from San Diego and visited with us for a few minutes. One of the investigators and a Texas Ranger then took him away to be interviewed. He finally was released three hours later.

That night Greg, the neighbor, Mr P (the psychic) and a few other people rode around the area seeing if Mr P got anymore feelings. He had a few but nothing that could help. What he was coming up with was not matching the facts of Rachel's location where she was last sighted and other facts. He did say he had a good image of the abductor's face and a man and woman that he knew.

Later that night Janet, Greg and I visited in eerie quietness after a day of much activity. We told him everything we could remember about the case and the timeline.

After two nights of no sleep I finally collapsed and slept most of the night.

Monday, Jan. 14

The searchers met down at a Lake Georgetown park. Janet went down there early in the morning to thank everyone. Another victims services person from sheriff's office came by.

I talked to him for awhile and unloaded all of my emotions. I was sick of hearing that Rachel might have left on her own. Where was the FBI? One of the people interviewing Greg commented that Janet and I were not very emotional about this. I unloaded about that. What good would it do to sit in a chair and cry all day? How would that help bring Rachel home? Another issue I had was that everyone left on Sunday night without giving Janet or myself any update of what was done or what the plan for the future was.

We got our house back and Mr P and an artist made a stretch of the possible abductor. About 50 people were still out in our yard, mostly friends and family there for support. The stress of having to talk to so many people was hard.

Lt. Cutler and another investigator came and updated us on the search and case. They didn't really know anything new yet. They assured us that the investigative end would continue after the search ended.

Janet's friends Jamie and Veda cleaned our living room, kitchen and bathroom and made us a hot lunch.

Finally I could let my parents come into our house. The weather had been good all 3 days but it was still chilly and windy.

Rana, my ex-officemate, gave me the name of the "America's Most Wanted" producer on the East Coast. I talked to her and she said she couldn't give us a whole segment but would give Rachel's story at least 30 seconds to a minute.

My brother David told us that a searcher fell down a cliff near Lake Georgetown. He had to be airlifted by Starflight to the hospital. Janet and I were very concerned.

Georgetown High School started coordinating bringing our dinner to us. Before that so much food was showing up we had to give a lot away.

A dog handler deputy from the Williamson County Sheriff's Department and one from the Austin Police Department came by to eat some of the food. They had been out all day and didn't even stop for lunch. They told me the dogs picked up a scent at the corner of our street that led down to a tank or man-made pond. Neither dog was water certified so the pond was going to be searched tomorrow by a diver.

Tuesday, Jan. 15

The sheriff's office ended the official search yesterday. Today they brought in a diver to check out the man-made pond or "tank" the search dogs identified yesterday. My wife Janet and I were sick with worry. Was Rachel's body in that water? The sheriff's victims service representative Gloria sat with us.

While we sat with Gloria we asked her to check on the injured searcher that was hurt on Monday. We called the hospital and he had already been released. We asked Gloria the get us his home phone number so we could call him.

Finally they gave us word that the tank was clean. They had found nothing.

One of the sheriff's investigators took the psychic's sketch to the Andice Post Office to see if anyone recognized him. No one did.

Later that afternoon, Mr P the psychic came back and an artist and he made a sketch of the possible abductor's two friends. We didn't recognize the abductor or either friend.

Wednesday, Jan. 16

Gloria, the victims services person, came over in the morning. She gave us an update and the injured searcher's phone number. I called Michael, the injured searcher, and Janet and I both talked to him. He told me that if we needed anything to just call him. I told him that we had plenty of support and wanted to help him if he needed anything. He said he was doing fine and didn't need anything.

Many rumors were starting to surface. The worst one came from the injury of Michael. People were saying that it was Rachel that was airlifted from Lake Georgetown and she was found dead. Many businesses were pulling down Rachel's flyers because of that.

We had to do something. A relative offered to give money for a reward. The sheriff's office decided to do a press conference and announce the reward and tell the public that Rachel was still missing. We would do the press conference Thursday morning.

In the afternoon I received a call from the Laura Recovery Center. They are a missing person's organization that has a web site of missing persons. From their web site you can print, e-mail or FAX flyers. I went through the details with Dawn, their representative, over the phone.

While I was taking to them the phone beeped. I asked Dawn to please hold on and I switched to the call waiting. It was one of the local television reporters. She told me about an organization named Texas Equusearch. The founder lost his daughter many years ago. They did searches for missing persons. I told the reporter thank you and switched back to Dawn. I told Dawn about the other conversation and she said they partnered with Texas Equusearch a lot. She asked me if I wanted her to call them.

About an hour later Tim Miller, the founder and director of Texas Equusearch, called me on the phone. He introduced himself and told me the story about his 16-year-old daughter Laura. He asked me if he could come and talk to us even if they didn't do a search. He explained that he was one of the few people that understood what we were going through. He had experienced the horror himself. Janet and I agreed that he should come.

A little while later Bob from the Laura Recovery Center called me to ask me some details for Rachel's missing person flyer. He told me that he had talked to Tim Miller, and Tim and some other Texas Equusearch members were on the way. I was amazed. I thought they were coming in the morning.

Thursday, Jan. 17

Tim Miller and two other Texas Equusearch members came to our house at 8:00 a.m. They had driven all night and slept a couple of hours at the rest stop outside Round Rock. At daybreak, they drove around the area to get familiar with it.

We set up a meeting with the sheriff's department, Texas Equusearch and the two of us. We met with Lt. Cutler and told him that Texas Equusearch was joining the team. We wanted one common team with the focus on finding Rachel. No one was in it for the glory.

Later that morning Janet, Tim and I gave a press conference at the sheriff's office. We announced the $10,000 reward, that Rachel was still missing and that Texas Equusearch was here to help. It was very strange to have five cameras and lights pointed at us. Just a week ago we were just like anyone else; now we were a news story. Again, the focus was on Rachel, not us.

That afternoon Tim called and said that Faith Lutheran Church had offered a room to use as a Search Command Center. A lot had happened in just a few short hours. The news teams came to Faith Lutheran and did more interviews, mostly with Texas Equusearch members because they were new.

The producer of "America's Most Wanted" called me. She said that there was not enough material to do a telecast on Rachel. I pleaded with her to at least show her picture on the air. I was unsuccessful. All they would do is add Rachel's flyer to their web site.

That was my first exposure to the age discrimination involved in missing persons' cases. There seems to be a "magic age" that gets national attention. It's somewhere below the age of 15. No one on the national level seems to care about older teens and adults. Not even the FBI.

A representative from the "48 Hours" television show called me. I told him about Rachel's disappearance and that a new search was being started. He said he would try and get someone from Houston or Dallas to cover the story. That never happened. We really wanted the coverage and they could have had a great story. I didn't know it at the time but this would be the largest search in Texas Equusearch's history.

Friday, Jan. 18

We met at the Faith Lutheran Command Center a little after 8:00 a.m. Volunteer searchers started showing up by the hundreds.

Search leaders were appointed and the first teams started going out. Four hundred volunteer searchers signed in that day. I have never seen anything like it.

The search teams came in and grabbed a bite to eat, rested and then went back out. When the teams came in the team leaders were debriefed and any possible clues were given to the sheriff's personnel stationed there. Janet and I thanked everyone all day long and did more interviews.

Food, water and supplies constantly flowed in. The local Walmart and HEB Grocery Store gave thousands of dollars in donations. People brought in hot food for the searchers, others manned the kitchen. It seemed that almost everyone was concerned and wanted to help.

Representatives from the Laura Recovery Center came to the search center. They helped to organize the search efforts.

Saturday, Jan. 19

Even more searchers came today. Around 440 search volunteers. I watched them go out, come in and go back out. That went on all day. Rachel's boyfriend Greg went out on the searches but both the sheriff's department and Texas Equusearch told Janet and me not to.

A tennis shoe was found but it wasn't Rachel's. The sheriff released a composite sketch of a suspicious person who went to a veterinarian to get his hand treated.

A man approached me at the search center. He said that he didn't think that the $10,000 reward was enough and asked me to give him the bank information. I thought he was going to give a few hundred dollars or maybe one thousand.

I went home to rest for a little while and fell fast asleep. A phone call awakened me. Our friend Jamie was at the searchcenter and said that the bank called and a person just matched our $10,000 with his own $10,000. It took me awhile to believe it. I thought for a minute and told Jamie that we were raising the reward to $25,000. I would make up the difference to get it to that amount. I then rushed back to the search center.

My sister Elaine, Bob from the Laura Recovery Center, and I updated Rachel's reward flyer with the new $25,000 reward. The wording was critical. Finally we decided to have an attorney review it.

Sunday, Jan. 20

Today was the biggest search of all. Around 500 volunteer searchers came. The search directors ran around trying to stay up with the huge organization of the search.

Bob from the Laura Recovery Center helped us come up with new ideas to keep Rachel in the news. He told us that we constantly needed to come up with new angles. One of his suggestions was to make a bulletin board with pictures of Rachel at different ages.

This became the idea for what was to be known as the Rachel Board. We collected pictures and souvenirs of Rachel's life and attached them to a huge board. I decided to open up the board for other friends and family members to add things about Rachel.

The Rachel Board soon became the focal point for the search center. People gathered around it and the media filmed it.

The Laura Recovery team went back to Houston. Their job was to help with the organization and set-up of a search.

Monday, Jan. 21

Today is a Martin Luther King holiday. The sheriff came in for a short time to check on things. He is the Grand Marshal for the Georgetown MLK parade.

A large number of searchers came today because of the holiday. The search area is expanding. Air, horse mounted, four-wheelers, walkers and even people in kayaks were sent out.

Tuesday, Jan. 22

The number of searchers went down as most people went back to work. Those who did come continued the search of the county.

Wednesday , Jan. 23

I talked with a retired FBI profiler from Houston and decided to hire him to help with the case. He drove to Georgetown and interviewed Greg, Janet and me, bringing him up to speed.

He planned to talk to a few of Rachel's friends, neighbors and others.

Thursday Jan. 24

The searches continued with a small group of volunteers. The profiler I hired continued to interview people. We had a few leads come in that were turned over to the sheriff's office.

Friday, Jan. 25

Another psychic talked to me. She had a lot of feelings that she thought were from Rachel. She also thought Janet's mother was with her. Janet's mother has been dead for over 30 years. I listened to her but nothing she said would help us find Rachel, even if her feelings were correct.

The profiler returned to Houston. He will do research remotely and type up a report for us.

Saturday, Jan. 26

Over 100 searchers came today. It was the weekend and people were off from work again.

Daryl, one of the Texas Equusearch members, found out that his house in Houston had been broken into and vandalized. I felt awful that he was here searching for my daughter and someone did this to him. I gave him the 19-inch television from our bedroom. It was the least I could do.

That night Pastor Selle from Faith Lutheran Church held a prayer service for Rachel. Members of the Georgetown High School choir came and sang. Five members of Rachel's 8th grade choir sang one of her favorite songs "Little Lamb." It was a very sad and yet a happy time to remember Rachel.

Sunday, Jan. 27

Reporters started asking me how long we would continue to search. Tim Miller from Texas Equusearch said that they were here until they found Rachel. I knew that might not be possible. We may never find her.

I told the media that we would search at least another week. Tim said that he would tell me when it was time to call the search off.

Two of my friends, my dad, my cousin and I went to check out an area a psychic identified. We didn't find anything.

Monday, Jan. 28

The searchers have dropped off to only a handful. I decided to try going back to work half days starting tomorrow. With the small number of searches going on it made sense.

Tuesday, Jan. 29

I went into work after dropping my daughter JoAnn off at school. I was only there for an hour and a half and the sheriff called and wanted us to meet in his office ASAP.

Janet and I met with the sheriff. He was upset about a rumor that was going around about the investigation. We told him that we didn't have anything to do with it. I could have told him that over the phone. We have heard plenty of rumors going around since this began.

Wednesday, Jan. 30

Texas Equusearch announced that they were leaving. I suspected it had something to do with the rumor that we heard yesterday. The search center will stay open through the weekend with local people leading it.

Tonight a group of friends had a barbecue for the Texas Equusearch members. I am really sorry to see them leave.

Thursday, Jan. 31

I worked most of the day but worked through lunch so I could leave early. I went by the search center after work. A few small teams went out today.