Have You Seen Sally? By Donna

One clear sunny day, Sally was busy surfing the web. Sally was 13 years old. Everyday after school she would rush home to chat with her friends. She also liked to make new friends in chat rooms. Sally never knew how dangerous chat rooms are until she had to learn the hard way.

This day seemed no different than any other day. Sally came home from school and immediately went to the computer to get online. When she signed on, her computer alerted her that she had new waiting. Sally always loved to get mail, so she was anxious to find out who it was from. She opened the message and was excited to see that it was from one of the new friends she had met in a chat room the day before.

Sally read the message and became overwhelmed with enthusiasm. Her new friend Rusty had ed her back. When she met Rusty the night before, she became very interested in him. He shared her interests, lived in the same state as she did, and was two years older than her. Sally had never had a boyfriend and she liked the thought of someone being interested in what she liked and her personality.

Rusty’s said that he had enjoyed talking to Sally and wanted to get to know her better. He asked her to get on at the same time that night so that they could talk some more. Rusty and Sally began talking like this every night when Sally would get home from school. They would chat for hours about anything Sally wanted to talk about. It seemed that Sally felt like Rusty really cared about her and was beginning to think that they were in love.

Several weeks later, another was waiting for Sally when she got home from school. Rusty had typed another to her, as he did every day, except today’s was different. Today Rusty was asking Sally if she would go on a date with him. Sally had never been on a date and was jealous that some of her friends had gone out with a boy before she had. She immediately replied to his and told him that she would love to see him.

The next day was Friday; this was the night that Sally was going out with Rusty. Sally told her mom that she was going over to Suzie’s house to work on a project and that Suzie’s parents would be picking her up in a little while. Sally felt guilty lying to her mom, but she knew her mother would not approve of her dating an older boy, or any boy for that matter. At 4:30, Rusty’s truck pulled into the driveway right on time. Sally yelled goodbye to her mother as she ran out the door.

Sally assumed that the man in the car was Rusty’s dad. She wondered why Rusty couldn’t pick her up himself. The man stepped out of the car to open her door and gave Sally a big hug. He told her that he was glad to finally meet Sally in person. Sally began to worry that she had gotten herself into something bad. Sally tried to run back inside, but instead the man shuffled her into the passenger seat and drove them away.

Sally became more and more afraid as the car got further away from her house. She wished that she had told her mom about her date. Sally was no longer sure that she would get home safely that night. She had heard about things like this happening to little girls her age, but never thought that it could happen to her.

That night, Sally’s mom became scared that Sally was in trouble. She called Suzie’s parents to see if Sally was still there. Sally was no where to be found. Her mom then called the police when Sally was not home by 11:00 pm. Her picture began appearing on the news within several days, and many people helped to form search parties. To this day, Sally has not been found. MISSING