1993 the Year of "The Flea"

By Xlibris US

We had a nice family, a nice new home, we were not wealthy. We did have good jobs, worked hard for what we did have. We were just a normal quiet family. We were not rich or famous, or anything noticeable that would warrant our nine year old to be kidnapped from our home, on a hot summer night back in 1993. So why did something so terrifying happen to us? What did we ever do to deserve it? This is part of my journals, that tell my story in my words.

This story is how we coped, or not coped with something so horrifying that it changed our lives forever. This is my story good or bad, of what happened, the stress, the agony, the guilt of not being able to protect our children, of determination to set things right. We were a strong family that people said the odds were against us that we would survive. We did survive, and we came through it stronger than anyone expected. This story needed to be told to help other families know that there is help out there, where one never expected. That courage and all the positive things, someone never thought they had overcame all that was so very bad.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Sep 9, 2014
• ISBN: 9781499034189

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Copyright © 2014 by Jolene Dennis Martin.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2014910369

ISBN:   Hardcover   978-1-4990-3420-2

Softcover   978-1-4990-3421-9

eBook   978-1-4990-3418-9

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 09/04/2014

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My Dedication is first to Tanessa who was the most courageous and incredible child, who is now the most courageous and incredible woman. To Dan and the other kids, who have had to put up with all my unusual ways of thinking, all these years, and to my dad George Manley Dennis, who I hope is looking down from Heaven and smiling with pride. I just want to make you proud of me Pop. I love you all… .

EVIL… Full of innocense, happiness, peace, calm and dreams, we never suspected that EVIL was lurking and watching and had plans for us in his schemes…. poem by Jolene Dennis Martin

We were a very typical, average, middle class family, married to husband Dan with four children, Tim, Marie, Brian and Tanessa, just a normal family, did all the usual things, worked, took vacations, went camping, kids in dance, kids playing baseball, just the typical American family. Just a shy, quiet, nothing out of the ordinary kind of a family. We bought property and had our new home built in 1990. It was a perfect location, it was our dream. After living in a doublewide mobile home for 13 years, in a park with neighbors, so close, that our neighbors could trace our every movement, hear our every word, this was the big time for us. Our hopes and dreams for the future and for our children, were shining bright. The world was our oyster, we had it all.

We moved on a one lane dirt road, with no neighbors, no lights, way back in the woods. It was a small farming community. There was a curfew for kids, it was a dry town, no alcohol sold in stores, no bars. The State Troopers were just a short distance away. We thought this was the safest town for our family. We were wrong…. This is what happened in 1993 to us. Keeping a detailed journal, this is my own story, using my own words, my own emotions. In just a few hours our calm quiet life, changed to one of complete terror, and even now after 20 years, it still lives with us. This is the story of my guilt in not being able to protect my children, my love for them, their courage and endurance, my own determination to see justice, the absolute agony of the entire family….. and the strength that kept us all together.

Aug. 16, 1993, Mon. morn. 7:55 at home from the Pike. We call the land that my family owns in the southern tier of New York, Pike because that was the name of the first settlers on the property back in the 1800’s. My father and his siblings all now reside there. It is a mountain that the family has built camps and homes through, on levels that remind me of stepping stones, going from the bottom all the way to the top…

Today’s agenda is to shampoo the carpets in the place. Yesterday, a woman came and picked out Fleabag and Silvertail, so we are down to three kittens now.

It’s supposed to rain all day. I haven’t been able to call in my unemployment yet because the one and only touch tone phone in the house is cordless and it was off the hook this morning so the battery is dead. It’s recharging now. The unemployment is only a temporary thing, as I am in the school pictures business, and of course, there is no school in the summer. I work at the plant that manufactures, developes, and touches up the photos. I’m a spotter, one that makes imperfections, perfect. I enjoy the job. I’ve been doing it for several years now.

Aug. 23rd, 1993 Mon. pm 2:55, we went to Massena on Friday to Dan’s mom’s. Tan and I came back yesterday. Donna L. had called last week to start making a schedule for the kids to take piano lessons. She mentioned that she switched dance studio’s for her three girls and she went about how much better this place was and it sounded like something we would like Tan to try. I signed her up for dance camp this week. It is 2 or 3 days a week, 6 or 7 hrs. a week. They offer jazz, ballet, tap, drama, and gymnastics and voice. They have a recital and a musical during the year. They do modeling, talent shows and competitions. It sounds like a great deal of work for the kids, as well as for the parents, but I think it would be great fun and a definate challange for Tan.

Dan and Brian remain at his mom’s until tomorrow to help Charlie, our brother-in-law with building a new outside firepit and a few other projects.

Aug. 24th, 1993 Tues. morn. 7:43, I can’t believe that Sept. is almost here and there is so much to do yet before school.

I’m out on the sundeck, it’s going to be a muggy day. Tanessa just got up. It’s so nice without the rest of the household home, wonderfully quiet! I do miss our dog Tai though. I really count on him to watch over things around here.

Since the youngest Martin is the only one home, thought I’d focus this morning for a few moments on Tanessa. She is nine years old, with big blue soulful eyes and very long light brown hair. She is an angel, she is everything that is good in life. She is small for her age, takes after Dan’s mom, and is so close to perfection, except for not, ever having a clean bedroom, (who does she get that from I wonder!). Anyway, when I think on it, there are a lot worse qualites she could of had. But she really is a little darling, her heart is as big and pure as gold. She is a friend to the friendless, (she gets that from me!) She has intelligence, (gets that from Dan). She is courteous and kind, she helps me more than I can say, as far as keeping an eye on Brian who is 11 years old, she has talent… she has a great love of music, song and dance. Before she talked, she sang, before she walked she danced, so at the age of three, I got her into her first dance studio. She loves animals and she’s a beautiful child, inside and out. No, I wouldn’t want a perfect child, I think she’s as close as I’d like her to be.

Aug. 27th 1993, 2:55am TANESSA WAS KIDNAPPED!!!

No, I’m not kidding… Dan and I woke up hearing ear piercing screams and the dog barking and growling. Dan ran down the stairs, I followed after fumbling for a bathrobe. Dan saw a man, and a shotgun pointed at Brian’s head. The man had his arm around Tan’s neck and was dragging her off with him, out the back door. Brian was standing in the living room, speechless, in shock. He just stood there shaking unable to get any words out of his mouth. The man turned the shotgun on Dan and told him to stay back or he’d kill him. He took Tan out the door, and then Dan ran back upstairs for one of his dad’s old rifles, he came back down and ran out the back door and yelled for me to call the police, someone had Tanessa. I ran to the phone, but shock had set in and even though the emergency phone numbers were right above the phone, I couldn’t find them, so I just dialed zero, and screamed in the phone. It took police less than nine minutes to get to us. There were two cars. By then Brian and I were waiting outside in the driveway. Tim was in his basement bedroom and never woke up. Poor Brian still was unable to speak. The two officers would not get out of their cars at first, they didn’t know what the heck was going on, and to them I must of looked like a complete lunatic. I stood out there barefoot, in a summer nightgown and robe, telling them what I knew, and that Dan went one way, to the right of out property, and that I was heading out up the hill to the left to find her. They made me stay put, they were not letting me go. That was over an hour ago. More police showed up, and reporters, the yard had probably about 10 vehicles parked in it. Police have been searching, search dogs are here, the helicopter hasn’t gotten here yet, fogged in they said. Now we are in the house, and I’m getting the feeling that no one is sure that I didn’t have something to do with Tan’s disappearance. Tim comes up from his basement bedroom, and now I get the feeling that they all think, he might of had something to do with her missing. Dan comes back and then we are all questioned, except for Brian who is still shaking uncontrolable. We are all suspects now…. There is a older man sitting in my rocking chair in the living room, who the Hell is he, he’s not wearing a uniform, so what is he doing in my chair? It turns out that the man in the rocking chair is Wayne Co. Sheriff Pisciotti. An even older man is here and was identified as a reporter… I am in our dining room, standing next to the fireplace and I hear a man’s voice on the walkie, saying he hears a child screaming in the woods. I cry because that means she’s alive, then it hits me… why is she screaming? I can’t handle just standing around, so in my insane state of mind, I grab a can of beer. I don’t normally drink alcohol, and start scrubbing my house. I get on my knees and start cleaning my floors! I think I even made a pot of coffee for the police, but that beer was something of a lifeline for me at the time.

3:10am she just walked in, her little blue nightgown in tatters, she’s scrapped and bruised, her bare feet are scratched and cut, but Thankyou God!!!! She is talking to the officers now, he left her up by the blackberry patch. He let her go after the noise of the search dogs (two of them), and all the other commotion. She told them that she told the bad man that she was only seven years old, hoping that if he thought she was younger he wouldn’t hurt her. After they questioned her gently, they let me take her upstairs for a bath. When I helped her undress, that is when we discovered that she was bleeding in her private parts, she cried out, with fright, but all I could think was that she must of fallen and injured herself. I left her to her bath and it was Investigator Virts who asked if she was okay. I told them that she must of hurt herself, and then everyone started looking nervous. That is when they said to call an ambulance. A female officer came then, one that Tanessa knew, and it was decided that she would take me and Tan to the hospital.

8:00am Tan and I are at the hospital. It appears that she has been sexually violated. They have given her a test for rape and the the doctors and police are talking to her. I’m a wreck… to see my little girl go though this is unbelieveably horrible. It happened so fast, he only had her for about an hour and a half, with a rifle and a missing sneaker (the other one was found in the living room), you would think he’d want to concentrate on getting away, instead of taking the time to rape a little girl! And with all the commotion of police cars and lights, dogs and police and us calling out to her through the woods, why would he do this? And what was his intent in the first place. If he was trying to rob us, why didn’t he have a bag to haul the stuff…. was he just a Peeping Tom? What the Hell happened? They are still searching for him. God, I hope they get him… She’s a brave little girl… I was so relieved when she walked into the house. I thought it was over, but I see now it’s only the beginning. Thank God he let her go. I don’t know how long I would of stood it, if it had been any longer.

5:30pm Of all the horrible things that have ever happened to this family, nothing compares to today. Nothing so painflul, frustrating, nothings as serious as this. Nothing as humiliating as when we saw the whole story as well as our road and mailbox and even us trying to get out, on the TV news. We have endured indignant questions about our lives, and many phone calls from family and friends. No use trying to keep a lid on it, because the whole world knows.

We went to see some women, one was from a victims organization and the other a child psychologist. We got the whole story straight, about what happened to her… I guess by the sound of it, it was not his thought to steal, but it was, to take her all along. He had been watching us for a long time. He was watching her, for a long time.

A friend called and gave me two names who she thought the posters looked like, from the composites, that Dan and Tan helped put together.

The police are still posted outside. As I sit down and look around, I see the house is the same shape and we all look okay, except for being tired, so did this really happen? Is this just one big long running nightmare? Am I bound to wake up sooner or later?

I’m taking the kids to up to the Pike for a little peace and quiet, but apparently everyone is a waiting our arrival there. It is scarey here, there are a lot of people, complete strangers in our house, and at the end of our road, there are a lot of police cars (Wayne Co. Sheriff’s Dept. and the State Troopers, here in the driveway and at the end of the road, checking cars that are going by, handing out the composites, there are camera people all around the house, and such confussion, it makes my head spin. I can’t think straight, we are all in shock, what the Hell happened here? This has got to be the longest day of our lives…

Aug. 28th 1993, Sat. morn. 5:00, Tanessa and Brian apprear to have gotten a good sleep, although, Brian took longer to surcumb to slumber. He was afraid of every little noise, at least they didn’t wake up with any nightmares. The heat kept me restless, that and the fear I was being watched through our windows. As of about 9:00 last night, the police have made good progress in finding this monster. It gave me hope. I don’t thing I know fully what I’d like to do to him, but I’d like to see him suffer for sure.

Dan has decided to go to Cuba with us, we want to leave early, before the newspeople head out here. Tanessa needs a prescription filled so we have to wait it out until the drug store opens. Kodak gave Dan a couple of days off because of this emergency, with pay.

How can our safe home of 3 1/2 years suddenly feel so frightening? How could our nice normal little lives have changed forever in just a blink of an eye?

I haven’t eaten anything since Thurs, so at least I’m hoping I can shed a few pounds.

Dan is asleep in the living room, he was exhusted. We all feel guilt, especially Dan. He feels responsible because he didn’t grab the rifle away from