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Nancy Grace
Andrea Durham Still Missing 21 Years Later; Girl, 13, Stays Home To Do Homework & Vacuum Vanishes
Aired March 09, 2011 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Vanished into thin air.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look for her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just need to kind her.
GRACE: So many cases --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We`re still looking.
GRACE: -- so few leads.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Missing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Missing.
GRACE: Missing person.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s our duty to find her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Missing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The witness had seen the suspect on NANCY GRACE.
GRACE: There is a God.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The NANCY GRACE show was out there for us.
GRACE: Found alive.
Fifty people, 50 days, 50 nights.
Let`s don`t give up.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): It`s Thursday night. Andrea Durham`s mom and sister leave home for a meeting. Andrea stays behind to vacuum.
Mom and sister return home to find the vacuum in the living room. Andrea is missing. There`s no sign someone broke into the apartment and no indication where Andrea may have gone. Police can`t say whether or not it`s foul play but wonder since all of Andrea`s belongings were left behind.
Andrea would be 34 years old. To this day, her big sister still scans crowds for her face.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JEAN CASAREZ, "IN SESSION": Every day, 2,300 people go missing in America. They disappear. They vanish. Their families are left waiting and hoping, but never forgetting.
And neither have we. Fifty people, 50 days. For 50 nights we go live, spotlighting America`s missing girls and boys, mothers and fathers, even grandparents. They are gone. But where?
Tonight, to Fort Walton Beach, Florida.
Thirteen-year-old Andrea Durham, she stays home to finish her homework and to vacuum the apartment. You see, it`s a school night. Her mother and 15- year-old sister, they head off to a meeting. But when they get back, a little less than two hours away, Andrea is gone.
The vacuum cleaner is now standing upright in the living room. The front door is closed but unlocked. And Andrea, she isn`t there.
Her purse, her clothes, her money, anything a 13-year-old would want to have with her is in her bedroom. It`s all there, undisturbed. No signs of foul play, struggle, or forced entry.
Tonight, what happened to beautiful 13-year-old Andrea while she was vacuuming the living room floor?
Let`s go straight out to Katie Tammen from the "Northwest Florida Daily News," joining us tonight from Fort Walton Beach.
Katie, what happened?
KATIE TAMMEN, "NORTHWEST FLORIDA DAILY NEWS": According to our records, she was left home at about 7:45 on February 1, 1990, and when her mom and sister came back home that night at about 9:15 the door was unlocked, the vacuum was in the middle of the living room, and Andrea was gone.
CASAREZ: Andrea was gone. All right. What more can you tell me about that scene? Because she stayed home. Her mother and sister went to this relatively short meeting, an hour and a half about. Where was the vacuum?
TAMMEN: She said the vacuum was in the middle of the floor. Her sister said it was pretty surprising that she hadn`t put it away. All her clothes, her makeup, her purse, money, everything was still there. And the living room floor had actually been vacuumed.
CASAREZ: Marlaina Schiavo, NANCY GRACE producer, joining us tonight from New York.
Tell us about this initial scene. What about the front door?
MARLAINA SCHIAVO, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Well, the front door was unlocked, and there was no sign of forced entry. And also, there`s one other little detail that`s in there that not a lot of people talk about.
The mother had mentioned that it was a possibility that Andrea might have gone out to smoke a cigarette, like snuck out to do that. But that was never really investigated. And when the cops came after they called, according to the mother they came about four hours later and took a report.
CASAREZ: All right. Maybe took a report.
Joining us tonight is the family of Andrea Durham. With us tonight, her mother and her sister, the last two people that ever saw her.
I want to thank you so much for joining us.
Ashyea Alford joining us, who is the sister of Andrea Durham. And Roseanne Sterling, who is the mother of Andrea Durham.
First of all, Ashyea, you were 15 years old when your 13-year-old sister went missing?
ASHYEA ALFORD, ANDREA DURHAM`S SISTER: Yes, ma`am. That`s correct.
CASAREZ: You were very, very young yourself.
When you and your mom left that night, what was it like? What did your sister say? What is your last vision of your sister?
ALFORD: Nothing out of the ordinary. There was no fights or no tension in the house. Just an ordinary day. We went on a regularly scheduled meeting. Not anything that stood out.
CASAREZ: So you said good-bye, and knowing that you were going to be back in a short while.
ALFORD: Yes. "See you later." I`m sure that she gave my mom a hug and a kiss. We always did.
CASAREZ: When you and your mom came back in the door after attending your meeting, just the vacuum cleaner was in the middle of the floor?
ALFORD: Yes. And when you first walk in the door, you know, we came in and we looked, of course, in the bedrooms. And we didn`t have a large apartment, but looked in the bedrooms and around the back.
And we had just recently moved into an apartment complex of about -- I don`t know how many -- about 200 apartments. So there was a laundry facility. So we looked around those areas first. And then I believe the panic sunk in, because she`s not the type of person that would just leave the house without a note or letting someone know where she was going, or without taking her things.
CASAREZ: Here`s the thing I want to know. Where was the vacuum cleaner when you left for your meeting?
ALFORD: She had it. She was getting ready to vacuum.
CASAREZ: OK. Was it in the center of the floor?
ALFORD: It wasn`t disturbed -- it was kind of off to the side like she had finished and kind of pushed it to the side. But it wasn`t disturbed or knocked over or anything like that.
CASAREZ: What did your sister have in her bedroom, just as a little 13- year-old girl would have?
ALFORD: Stuffed animals. She was into tennis at that time. So she had some tennis posters on the wall. And basically, that was it.
CASAREZ: Roseanne Sterling, the mother of Andrea, I think we have you now.
Ms. Sterling, thank you for joining us. After this length of time, your life, I`m sure, we know has been changed forever. But I want to go back to 1990, when this all happened.
Your daughter didn`t take anything with her. I mean, nothing was gone out of her bedroom at all. What I want to ask you, though, when you left that night for your meeting, what did she have on and what did she have on her feet?
ROSEANNE STERLING, ANDREA DURHAM`S MOTHER: She had her regular tennis shoes on and she had a pair of black blue jeans and a white T-shirt.
CASAREZ: OK. So she did have shoes on when you left, because, you know, if you`re around the house and you`re vacuuming, maybe you wouldn`t wear your shoes. And I was just curious about that, if shoes were gone.
STERLING: It was February. It was a little chilly.
CASAREZ: OK. Were jackets gone out of the home when you came back and did a thorough search?
STERLING: Sorry. Say again?
CASAREZ: Jackets or coats, were any of them missing of Andrea`s?
STERLING: No. Nothing was missing.
CASAREZ: Nothing was missing at all?
STERLING: Not that we could find.
CASAREZ: The front door, what was it like when you came up to it after your meeting?
STERLING: It was simply closed. It wasn`t locked.
CASAREZ: And how had you left it?
STERLING: I had left it locked. We had a deadbolt.
CASAREZ: OK. So how would one lock it if -- did you lock it from the front when you left?
STERLING: Yes.
CASAREZ: Outside?
STERLING: Yes.
CASAREZ: So it had to have been opened up from the inside and that`s how someone would leave. You didn`t need a key to open it up to go out?
STERLING: Right. That`s correct. That`s why the police said they could find no signs of forced entry.
CASAREZ: All right. Now, when I found this out, I was really, really shocked, but you called the police that night because your daughter`s gone and you can`t find her, and you see the vacuum cleaner in the middle of the floor where she was vacuuming.
What did the police do in the coming days?
STERLING: We called them a little after 9:00 when we got home. It wasn`t long before we called them.
They came out at midnight. They took a report.
They checked around to make sure there was no forced entry. They asked us some questions. And then they left. And then I went to the sheriff`s department in the morning and every day for 30 days after that.
CASAREZ: You went there. And what did they do for you?
STERLING: After a couple of weeks, I found out that it did not appear that they had asked any questions in the apartment complex. So we canvassed ourselves. But after 20 -- after two weeks, a lot of people couldn`t remember if they had heard anything or seen anything that night.
CASAREZ: So you`re telling me that you go to the police, your daughter, your 13-year-old daughter is gone, out of her own home, and police make subjective determinations that it`s not warranted to search and bring the scent dogs out, and to do forensic investigations at all?
STERLING: No. They had made the assumption already -- what I was told by the lieutenant that was working there is that all 13-year-olds run away and that she would come home when she was hungry.
So that`s the reason I was down there every single day, was to make sure they were doing something. I wanted her picture in every single police car, sheriff`s office car, so they would know. And I was told that she looks like every other blonde-haired, green-eyed 13-year-old. It was very difficult to really -- I had to walk on eggshells because they were the only source of help that I really had to do any investigation.
CASAREZ: So, 21 years later, here we are. And your little girl hasn`t come home yet. All 13-year-olds run away, they come home when they`re hungry. She`s not home yet.
What message do you have tonight for her if she is out there?
STERLING: Just that we love her and we will never stop looking for her, and that all we want is just to know that she`s OK. And if she would call us, call someone she knows that would call us, and let us know that she`s all right. And that she knows how much we love her and miss her.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): On the evening of February 1, 1990, Roseanne Sterling took her 15-year-old daughter out for a meeting, leaving Andrea behind, asking her to do her homework and vacuum.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): But two hours later, when they returned, 13-year-old Andrea Durham was gone.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Andrea`s mother and sister immediately noticed the vacuum sitting in the middle of the room.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her belongings, including her clothes, purse and money, still in the home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The door to the apartment was found unlocked.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police determined there are no signs of struggle.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Authorities continued to pursue all leads and tips and say they will continue to work on this case until the teen is found.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What happened?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- is Andrea Durham?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CASAREZ: I`m Jean Casarez.
Andrea Durham, her family wants to find her. And we`ve got age progression photos because it`s been 21 years. But her family believes there is a chance that she is alive, and they want her found.
I want to go to Marc Klaas tonight.
Marc, when I read this and I heard this from the family, I can`t get it out of my mind. I mean, the police come that night, 1990, and they say, oh, she`s 13, she`s run away, she`ll be back.
She didn`t come back, Marc, and for 21 years they`ve waited. And for two weeks the police, they say, didn`t do anything.
MARC KLAAS, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: Yes. Jean, this was a very different time. And I`m terribly sorry for what Andrea`s family has to go through continually for these last 21 years.
In 1990, there was not one law enforcement agency in America that had a missing child protocol. They just didn`t know what to do. So they would always default back to the fact that she was a runaway.
The fact that they didn`t show up for four hours demonstrates that there was absolutely no sense of urgency. But we now know that children that are murdered as a result of a -- that 74 percent of children that are murdered as a result of a kidnapping will be murdered within the first three hours.
We also know that in 1990, there was no sex offender registry. So they really don`t know what they moved into in that apartment house. There could have been all kinds of perverts living there, and nobody would have ever known. And certainly law enforcement, having no sense of urgency, no protocol, no way to really approach this case, absolutely failed miserably.
It`s terribly sad. I really don`t think that would happen in any jurisdiction in this day and age, though, simply because we know so much more than we did at that time.
CASAREZ: And you know, Marc, when your beautiful daughter, Polly Klaas, went missing. It was three-and-a-half years later that Polly went missing. And in that situation, your daughter was at a slumber party. A man came through a window at knifepoint.
The other children survived. Your daughter was taken. But the police were at the scene and they did investigate.
Why the difference in three-and-a-half short years?
KLAAS: Well, in the early `90s and late `80s in northern California we had had an epidemic of child abductions. And the city of Petaluma I believe really drew a line in the sand.
The people there said we`re not going to allow this to occur in our community. Law enforcement geared up very quickly.
I contacted the FBI and got them into the case. And they were really starting to understand and appreciate these kinds of crimes a little bit more. But that`s not to say that huge mistakes were not made in the first hour of Polly`s kidnapping.
For instance, law enforcement put out an all-points bulletin within 15 minutes of Polly being reported missing that the information was not for press release. In other words, they did not want the press to know that a little girl had been kidnapped.
Therefore, one of the local jurisdictions did not put the information out over their -- over their radios to the patrol cars. And within an hour of Polly being kidnapped, two of those patrol cars had her kidnapper within their grasp. But not knowing a crime had occurred, they helped him on his way.
CASAREZ: So we`re talking about the early `90s. Andrea Durham, 1990 she went missing. And because of these cases, we most likely have the laws we have in effect now.
Joining us tonight, we do have law enforcement from the area. We have Michele Nicholson joining us. She is the PIO from the Okaloosa County Sheriff`s office, Fort Walton Beach.
Thank you so much for joining us.
And I understand that you were actually a reporter during that time and you covered, or at least well knew this case?
MICHELE NICHOLSON, PIO, OKALOOSA COUNTY SHERIFF`S OFFICE: That`s exactly right. I actually worked for the local television affiliate.
And it was interesting. I`ve been listening to some of the things that are being said, and I covered this for my local news station. And we were actually contacted by the Okaloosa County Sheriff`s Office to cover this story.
I cannot remember the exact time frame, if it was the next day, or maybe the day after. But there wasn`t this huge lapse of, you know, weeks before this became high profile.
In fact, I know I interviewed Andrea`s mother and she was -- even after we`d been contacted by law enforcement, she was passionately out there working with the local media trying to make sure that this story stayed in the forefront, because obviously the best hope is media attention.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What happened?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where is Andrea --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Andrea --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Andrea Durham?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Andrea`s sister and mother headed out for a meeting, leaving Andrea behind, asking her to do her homework and vacuum.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just about two hours later, when they come back, Andrea was missing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Personal items, including her purse, clothes, and makeup were all left behind.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police say there was no sign of forced entry.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But over 20 years later, Andrea`s family is not giving up the fight, still hoping to hear the news that their little girl has finally been found.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CASAREZ: I`m Jean Casarez.
Andrea Durham was only 13 years old. She stayed home because her mother and sister were going to a meeting, and she said, finish your homework and vacuum. The vacuum was out. She had been vacuuming, it appeared. But when they arrived home, she was gone -- gone out of her own apartment and never found again.
And with us tonight is her mother, who has suffered with this throughout the last 21 years. Roseanne Sterling joining us.
I want to ask you, Roseanne, since you said that you double-bolted that front door, your daughter had to open it. She had to have opened that door.
Do you agree with my analysis?
STERLING: Yes. Yes. I had told the police then, if she did leave with somebody, then I felt like she left with somebody she knew.
CASAREZ: Do you think she could have left believing she`d be right back? Because I just don`t know what 13-year-old would run away from home without taking anything out of her bedroom.
STERLING: Right. I`ve thought a lot about it, and I thought maybe that she stepped outside or one of her friends came to the door, and she was outside talking to them or something, something of that nature.
CASAREZ: Did you go to Wisconsin at one point because of a lead that you had that your daughter was alive there?
STERLING: Yes. The Center for Missing and Exploited Children called me one day and said that they had a recording that someone had called, said their name was Andrea, and that -- from Wauwatosa. And they just said that the voice had said that her name was Andrea Durham and that she was OK.
So we went up there, and we spent about four days getting all the media -- we were really good about getting all the stations there online, showing her picture. We walked every place that we could and put her posters out everywhere, but we never heard anything back after that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was going to vacuum and tidy up the apartment while her mom and sister left for a quick meeting.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When Roseanne and Andrea`s sister returned less than two hours later, there was no sign of Andrea.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Vanished into thin air.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look for her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just need to find her.
GRACE: So many cases.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re still looking.
GRACE: So few leads.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Missing.
GRACE: Missing person.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s our duty to find her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Missing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The witness seen the suspect on Nancy Grace.
GRACE: There is a God.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nancy Grace show was out there for us.
GRACE: Found. Alive. 50 people, 50 days, 50 nights. Let`s don`t give up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s Thursday night. Andrea Durham`s mom and sister leave home for a meeting. Andrea stays behind to vacuum. Mom and sister return home to find the vacuum in the living room. Andrea is missing. There`s no sign someone broke into the apartment and no indication where Andrea may have gone.
Police can`t say whether or not it`s foul play but wonder since all of Andrea`s belongings were left behind. Andrea would be 34 years old. To this day, her big sister still scans crowds for her face.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JEAN CASAREZ, LEGAL CORRESPONDENT, "IN SESSION": I`m Jean Casarez. It just doesn`t make sense that a little 13-year-old girl is at home, doing her homework. Her mother says vacuum while we`re gone to the meeting. She gets the vacuum out. She vacuums, and then, she`s gone. And there has never been a lead in this case. No sign of foul play, but there`s no sign also that she isn`t alive at this point.
I want to go out to Katie Tammen, who really knows this case. She is a reporter of "Northwest Florida Daily News" joining us from Fort Walton Beach, Florida. Really go into all the details that we know from that night.
VOICE OF KATIE TAMMEN, REPORTER, NORTHWEST FLORIDA DAILY NEWS: We don`t know a whole lot more than what her mom and her sister recounted of that night. She was home by herself for a couple of hours, and when they came home, she was gone.
CASAREZ: Well, Katie, they just move to a new apartment complex, right? So, there must have been moving in day where people may have seen little Andrea with her mother and sister. Do we know anything about the apartment complex?
TAMMEN I don`t, actually, no.
CASAREZ: All right. Well, what I can tell you is that it was a rather large apartment complex, a lot of people there. Marlaina Schiavo, what I`m going for here is that they didn`t have everything in that day and age that they have now, registered sex offenders, to be able to canvass the area, but this was a new apartment complex.
Obviously, they were the new family that had just moved in a little bit ago. And there is a possibility that someone saw Andrea and someone that had nefarious reasons for liking her and wanting to be with her.
MARLAINA SCHIAVO, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: It`s possible. And like you said, this was -- you know, this was 1990s. I mean, this is a time before amber alerts and all of the things we have access to now. This was even a time where cell hones weren`t even that popular. So, nowadays, where, you know -- I mean, they even said Andrea didn`t even leave a note. Nowadays, kids will text and call. There was really no way to get in touch with her to find out where she was or vice versa.
CASAREZ: Roseanne Sterling, the mother of Andrea Durham, is with us tonight along with her sister. Both were the last to ever see Andrea. Roseanne, we did not want to invade your privacy because we know you and your daughter went to a meeting that night, but you have said that we can talk about where you went because you have so much to be grateful for in this horrible story, but you were actually going to an AA meeting that night, right?
VOICE OF ROSEANNE STERLING, MOTHER OF MISSING 13-YEAR-OLD GIRL, ANDREA DURHAM: that`s correct.
CASAREZ: And at that point of time you were celebrating how many years of sobriety?
STERLING: At that time, I had a year and a month.
CASAREZ: And today?
STERLING: Twenty-one years.
CASAREZ: That is really, really something, Roseanne. I want to talk more about Andrea because when I think about a little 13-year-old that would intentionally leave home, she would take things with her like a coat because it was chilly. It was February.
STERLING: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.
CASAREZ: When you canvassed her bedroom, what did you -- did you find anything gone at all?
STERLING: Not that we could find. The first thing we noticed is her jacket and her purse were still there. And we looked to see -- but ma`am, that would be the first thing that we would notice was gone. And that was the first thing we noticed was still there. So, that was always a puzzle to us.
CASAREZ: To defense attorney John Burris joining us from San Francisco. What does that tell you? You know, it`s always a clear indication when a child goes missing and it`s during a chilly time of year and they don`t take a coat or jacket.
JOHN BURRIS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, it certainly would suggest that she did not go willingly, may have been abducted, or, if she went out very briefly, she could have gone out to the complex there to meet someone, but it would raise real suspicion in my own mind that this young girl was abducted, because you wouldn`t expect a child to leave, particularly, a young girl without her purse or a jacket at this time of day, unless, it was just for a very temporary reason. A temporary meeting.
She went outside the apartment to meet someone and was fully expecting to come back and could have been abducted from that point, but she wouldn`t have left for an extended period of time voluntarily without a jacket or some kind of information, personal information for herself.
CASAREZ: I would agree with you. Michele Nicholson, the public information officer from Okaloosa County Sheriff`s Office joining us, who was a reporter at that time with a television station in the area that actually covered this case. So, you have a lot of information from then and from now. This is an active case?
VOICE OF MICHELE NICHOLSON, PIO, OKALOOSA COUNTY SHERIFF`S OFFICE: It is an active and open missing person investigation. And yes, it`s a case that stands out vividly with me because it was actually something fairly unusual for our community to have, you know, an event like this, where you have a young teenage girl that disappears without a trace, and it remains a mystery for 21 years.
CASAREZ: Did they dust for fingerprints at the front door?
NICHOLSON: You know, I can`t answer that, and I can tell you that I know that initially when they went in, and I remember this from talking to law enforcement, that they did not really suspect foul play because they didn`t have any signs of forced entrance. No signs of a struggle. No one, you know, it`s a pretty big apartment complex, and you know, nobody reported seeing or hearing anything suspicious.
But then again, on the flip side, you don`t have evidence of her running away because, as you`ve been talking about, she left so many of her things there. So, how it was handled specifically at that time, I`m not sure. I did pull up the initial offense report that said that she was reported missing at seven minutes after midnight on February 2nd, and that the deputy was there, took the report between nine minutes after and 34 minutes after. So, I guess, he was on the scene maybe about 25 minutes.
CASAREZ: And that`s what the family has said, they tried to find her all over the complex before they called police.
NICHOLSON: Right.
CASAREZ: Tonight, everybody, please help us find Derrick Engebretson. He`s eight years old. He vanished on December 5th, 1998, from Bonanza, Oregon. He`s a white male, 4 feet s6 inches tall, 85 pounds with brown hair and hazel eyes. If you have any information, please call 541-883- 5130.
If your loved one is missing and you need help, go to CNN.com/nancygrace. Send us your story. We want to help you find your loved ones.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was going to vacuum and tidy up the apartment while her mom and sister left for a quick meeting.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When the mother and sister returned less than two hours later, Andrea was gone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The family vacuum still standing alone, upright in the room.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And Andrea`s purse, coat, clothes, makeup, and money all left behind.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police determined there are no signs of struggle.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The door to the apartment left unlocked.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: More confounding, police say there was no sign of forced entry.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Over 20 years later, Andrea`s family is not giving up the fight. Authorities continue to pursue all leads and tips and say they will continue to work on this case until the teen is found.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: I`m Jean Casarez. Andrea`s family has worked tirelessly through the years to try to find Andrea Durham. I want to go to her sister right now. Ashyea Alfrord joining us. Alford. You actually went back to the old area where your sister was abducted to talk to and to find her friends at the time because they were older and you thought maybe they would have more information.
ASHYEA ALFRORD, SISTER OF MISSING 13-YEAR-OLD GIRL, ANDREA DURHAM: Right. I went back probably five or six years later, well, probably longer than that after I already had children and everything and thought maybe these people had grown up and had children of their own, that if they had, you know, known something that maybe they didn`t want to say before that they would come forward, but, again, the same as everything. It`s just that it was a dead end.
CASAREZ: So, they gave you no help at all? And they had to be honest with you, right? You felt they were being honest with you?
ALFRORD: Yes. I think they sincerely said to me, you know, as her sister, you know, I wish I knew something. I wish I could tell you something that would help you find her because, as a community and as a whole, I get that response a lot.
CASAREZ: Ashyea, what do you think happened to your sister?
ALFRORD: That`s probably the number one question that I get asked. You know, I wish that I knew. I wish I had a feeling. I do believe, the reason we do these shows is I do believe there`s people out there that know something. Somebody out there knows something. And even if it`s a small detail, you know, they can call in, that it would give the information to the police department for something to go on because there`s just not anything.
I do know that Andrea was not the type of person that would go out by herself. She was timid. I did not see her going out and running the roads.
CASAREZ: Yes. I see that in her as we see her pictures. I see that in her.
ALFRORD: Right.
CASAREZ: And those are the age progression photos, everybody, you`re seeing now of what it is believed she would look like. Look at them. Stare at them. Have you seen anyone that resembles Andrea Durham?
CASAREZ: Tom Shamshak, former police chief, private investigator, joining us tonight from Boston. What do we do now? What can police do now after all these years? Because she may be alive.
TOM SHAMSHAK, FMR. POLICE CHIEF: Jean, good evening. It`s a pleasure to be with you. I think law enforcement is actively, again, pursuing this. They need to keep this in the media. The family needs to be persistent in making sure that there`s a spotlight on this case. There is that possibility that she is on the landscape someplace, and we would be optimistic that she would return.
However, you know, when young people run away, they`re in with the, you know, violent crowd. She could have been a victim -- a vulnerable victim of human traffickers back then. And I hate to think that, but that is certainly a plausible explanation for her disappearance based on what I know and what has been shared here this evening.
CASAREZ: To Lillian Glass, psychologist and body language expert, joining us from Los Angeles. The thing that I can`t get out of my mind is the family says, and they said on the show tonight, that the center for missing children had a call about four years after Andrea went missing, saying I am Andrea Durham. I`m alive. I`m in Wisconsin. The family went there. They could not find her even with the help of media, but look at Carlina White.
This is a young woman that was kidnapped, abducted as a baby. She finally made a call to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and she was found. So, I think there`s a possibility that could have been her, but they just couldn`t find her at that time.
LILLIAN GLASS, PH.D., PSYCHOLOGIST: I agree with you, Jean. And the anguish that the sister and the mother has gone through all these years, your heart just goes out to them, but they can`t give up hope because it`s a possibility that she still is alive. And when you look back during that time, it was a 200-person complex, and there were transients and people had friends of friends of friends.
So, it could have been anybody. And one more thing, a person that`s 13 years old, that`s naive and timid, somebody probably knocked at the door, she opened it unknowingly, and something may have happened to her, but there is hope.
CASAREZ: Yes. You might have the right theory there. Angela in Florida. Hi, Angela.
ANGELA, Florida: Hey.
CASAREZ: Thank you for calling.
ANGELA: Yes. I have two questions. My first one was was the vacuum on, by any chance, as in maybe somebody heard she was vacuuming, knew that they could break in so that she wouldn`t hear it because she was vacuuming? And also, I was wondering what they were doing more in the local area. I personally live in Fort Walton Beach, and I have never heard of this case before, and I`ve never seen anything around asking if they`ve seen her.
CASAREZ: OK. Good questions. To Michelle Nicholson, PIO, Okaloosa County, Florida right there in Fort Walton Beach, in the local area, I mean, we are nationally bringing this case to viewers` attention, but in your local area, what can people do if they know something or if they want to help 21 years later?
NICHOLSON: well, you know, we always try and push crime stoppers because you can stay anonymous, and at this point, we just want answers. So, emeraldcoastcrimestoppers.com, the number`s 850-863-tips. 850-863- tips. They can contact the sheriff`s office. And typically, what happens in cases like this is you`ll do the annual, you know, it`s been another year, and I know the local media just did something in February of 2010 on this.
And the FDLE had placed Andrea in their cold case calling cards that they distribute, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement distributes out. And one of the things that we were just talking about this week is we`ve set up a YouTube account, and we`re going to be featuring all our cold cases on there one at a time, and of course, Andrea will be one of the cases that we can feature.
So, you just never -- you never stop trying and hoping that somebody out there that knows something will finally decide it`s time, you know, to talk or share something that they thought maybe wasn`t important at the time, but they realize now. But it all really focuses on media attention at this point.
CASAREZ: Or for Andrea to come forward herself, which has happened in the past and can happen. Her family loves her. They want to see her. They just want answers. Ashyea Alford joining us who is the sister of Andrea tonight, that vacuum cleaner, it wasn`t on when you walked into the door, right?
ALFORD: No. No. The only unusual thing is that it wasn`t put away. You know, we always put everything away. So, that was the only unusual thing about it, but it wasn`t disturbed or on or anything.
CASAREZ: And you believe she actually vacuumed that night, right?
ALFORD: Yes. It`s hard for me to remember exactly if she had vacuumed or not. But going back to what they were talking about, getting - - that`s one of the things that we do these shows because I have people that come back to me. I live in the same area. And they say, oh, you didn`t find her yet.
Like a lot of people don`t realize that she is still out there missing, and that we are still out there looking. And that`s one of the -- you know, why we try to get it out in the media as much as possible and get the awareness out there.
CASAREZ: If Andrea`s listening to you tonight and she sees you, her sister, what do you want to say to her?
ALFORD: I just want to say that, you know, no matter how much time has gone by, there`s nothing, no time between us that could keep us from loving you and welcoming you back with open arms. No questions asked. We just want to know that you`re OK, that you`re not suffering.
CASAREZ: All right. Good words. Marc Klaas, your final thoughts on this case that is so tragic.
MARC KLAAS, PRESIDENT & FOUNDER, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: Well, Jean, 21st century families can be much more proactive than 20th century families at this point in time. If you suspect your child has run away, contact the national -- the National Runaway Switchboard. They have a vast array of local, state, and federal resources to assist you. Take advantage of the social networking sites, including YouTube.
You`ll find huge communities of like-minded people that will assist you in your efforts as you assist them. And finally, you can contact, you can create your own flyer of your missing child and get them out to teen and homeless shelters and ask them to post them on the bulletin board.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CASAREZ: These are the faces of America`s missing. Every 30 seconds, another child, a sister, a brother, a father or mother, they disappear. Their families are left behind, wondering and waiting and hoping. We have not forgotten.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What really frightened me was that a few days after he disappeared, he wrote a letter to his mother, and in that letter, it discussed funeral arrangements for him and for my son.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Reuben Bennett Blackwell was allegedly abducted in Clinton, Maryland by his father in 1996. Reuben would now be 18.
Garrett Alexander Bardsley was last seen on the morning of August 20th, 2004. He was fishing with his father.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Garrett and I went out fishing early in the morning. I wanted to -- wanted to get out early, and there was frost on the ground. We went out and got to the lake and started to get ready to fish. And so, we -- we fished for a little while and laughed and everything.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His feet got wet. So, he started to walk back to the campsite to change his shoes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I said OK. Do you want me to go with you? And he said, "No, I can do it."
GRACE: He is five feet tall, 115 pounds, light brown hair, almost blond, brown eyes. Last seen wearing light clothing, a black hooded sweatshirt, black and red sweatpants, white converse tennis shoes. He was carrying a black ice fishing pole. He did not have food, did not have backpack or any other equipment. Location, Unita Mountains, Utah.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I went to the campfire and thought I saw him initially because they`re all boys, and it was cold and they had hoods on. And so, I thought that was him and went and grabbed my food, stood over by the campfire, looked, and horror filled my body because it wasn`t Garrett. The most important thing is to teach your children.
Teach your children that -- that if they do get lost, to stay still. That they don`t have to worry. That somebody will come and find them. That there will always be someone there that will find -- that will go and look for them to find them.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CASAREZ: I`m Jean Casarez. See you tomorrow night, nine o`clock sharp eastern. Until then, we will be looking. Goodnight, everybody.
END
