This post deals with violence and assault and might be triggering for some readers.
November 19, 1988, was a sunny Saturday morning, and nine-year-old Michaela Garecht asked her mum, Sharon Murch, if she could ride her scooter to the local store with her best friend, Katrina Rodriguez.
Sharon told her that she couldn’t go without someone older to keep an eye on her. But Michaela kept begging, and eventually her mum gave in. The store, Rainbow Grocery, was only two blocks away, in suburban Hayward, California.
“I love you, Mum,” Michaela said before she rode off.
“I love you too,” Sharon replied, as she watched Michaela ride away.
She would never see her again.
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The two little girls rode to Rainbow Grocery, and left their scooters outside the door. They bought soft drinks and snacks. When they came out, Michaela saw her scooter had been moved, and it was now behind a car. She walked past the car to pick it up, and a man got out of the driver’s side.
“I looked up when I heard a scream, and I saw a man putting her into his car,” Katrina later remembered. “She was still screaming. I just stood and watched, frozen in shock.”