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leaned against one of the two maroon posts that supported the tiny front porch of her father and stepmother's Saginaw house. It had been eight long days since her daughter's abduction. Leaving her two-year-old daughter back in North Dakota, Leola had flown to Texas, hoping she could help bring her older daughter back home.
    Leola, her dark brown hair gently blown back by a mild westerly wind, straightened to address the press. The shy young woman didn't relish facing reporters and cameras. Unlike her stepmother, who seemed at home in front of the media, Leola was uncomfortable. She was there only to plea for Opal's return; then she would gladly fade back into the background to let others deal with the press.
    Wearing a sleeveless flowered shirt in temperatures that hovered in the mid-seventies, Leola Sanderford spoke into a dozen black microphones set up to capture her words. She stated that she believed someone outside the family had taken Opal. "It had to be. There's nobody else who could have done it," Leola said softly.
    The young mother of two was having difficulty speaking. Overcome with grief and fear, Leola said, "Please bring her home safe" before she broke down and was led inside the house. There, her grandmother Leola Hartline, who had traveled from Corpus Christi to Saginaw to help her family, consoled the younger Leola.

    Outside, Audrey Sanderford stepped in front of the microphones and fielded questions from the massive media contingent.
    "I don't want to think Opal is dead," her grandmother said. "I know she's alive. I know whoever's got her is moving around somewhere, somehow."
    Audrey wanted desperately to believe Opal had not been harmed. She, as well as her stepdaughters and husband, wanted their lives back to normal, but life as the Sanderfords knew it prior to Opal's kidnapping would never be the same.
    It would be changed forever for their neighbors as well. The students at Opal's elementary school were being kept inside for recess. Parents didn't allow their kids out of their sight. Some parents carried copies of the official list of registered area sex offenders with them. They would check and recheck the names, birth dates, descriptions, and streets where known sex offenders lived. Tensions were high. The laid-back residents of the small town had become prisoners in their own homes. Where, before, there had been kids playing football, riding bikes, and climbing trees, the Saginaw streets were now nearly deserted.
    "It's kind of like it's raining all the time in Saginaw," one resident described. "The kids don't go outside to play. They're all cooped up inside."
    Their children's mobility may have been severely restricted, but anxious adults finally were given official permission to get out and look for Opal. Divided into teams of five to ten, some volunteers searched on foot, others on horseback, while still others were led by dogs trained to detect human scent. Nearly 110 volunteers searched much of the thirteen-square-mile city, but found nothing.
    While searchers combed the area in pursuit of Opal, her family prepared for Easter. Opal had helped pick out a light blue dress she'd planned to wear on Easter Sunday. Her grandmother had been forced to hide it from the youngster, who had been handling it so much Audrey feared she would wear it out before she even had a chance to wear it.

    Opal would have been beautiful in the dress, the color intensifying her deep blue eyes and accenting her dark brown hair. Audrey could envision Opal standing in the living room, posing for an Easter picture with a basket full of candy in one hand and a stuffed animal in the other.
    Tears burned Teresa Sanderford's eyes, while at the same time a small smile crossed her lips. She watched grandson Austin scurry across the lawn in a frantic, fun-filled hunt for the brightly colored eggs hidden in the yard. It was Easter, little more than a week after Opal's abduction. Teresa's thoughts were of Opal, how cute she always