Missing Michaela

To Michaela's Kidnapper

This is directed to Michaela's kidnapper, or to anybody the kidnapper may have handed her off to, or even to anybody who knows something about Michaela and what happened to her.  Please, read it and have some compassion. 

 I don't know who you are.  I don't know why you kidnapped my daughter.  For years now I have assumed that you were one of two people.  The most likely choice was that you were a violent sexual predator.  That seems to be the category that most kidnappers fall into.  The other possibility I considered is that you were somebody who kidnapped kids for others, whether for profit, for drugs, or because of a debt you owed to some bad people.

This week, though, I met another possibility when Jaycee Dugard was found.  Perhaps you are a pedophile.  And I know that most pedophiles don't really want to hurt the children.  They think they love children.  They think that what they do is okay, and even believe that the children can love them back.  I want to make it clear to you, to any pedophiles out there who might read this, that it is NOT TRUE.  What you do to children is not loving.  It is harmful beyond your understanding.  It creates scars in their hearts that may never heal.  If you really love the children, please don't do this to them.

But if you are a pedophile who kidnapped my daughter, or who took her from the hands of the man who did kidnap her, if you do or did have any love for her, I am begging you to please, please let her come home.  You know that the loss of her family would have hurt her deeply, so if you love her, please give her back what she lost. 

Or perhaps if you are Michaela's kidnapper, at some time you have come to feel remorse for what you did.  If so, please allow that remorse to take root in your heart.  If you are someone who has been sitting on knowledge you have about what happened to Michaela, please allow that compassion I know you feel to cause you to take action.  If Michaela is still alive, have mercy on her.  Even if she is not, have mercy on me.

Every day I have to wonder where Michaela is, what she is going through.  Even the smallest sadness or fear my children feel is magnified a thousand times over in my own heart.  I need to know that Michaela is not suffering.  I need to know where she is.  I need to be able to put my arms around her and tell her I love her.  But if she is not alive, if I know that with a certainty, that at least I will know where she is, and that she is safe, and that she is not suffering.  So please, PLEASE, PLEASE just tell me where my daughter is!

You can contact me anonymously.  E-mail me at missingmichaela@gmail.com.  Or send a letter to Michaela's Mom at P.O. Box 55844, Hayward, CA 94540.  If you prefer, contact the police or FBI at the phone numbers provided on the other pages of this website.

I think that you probably need peace as much as we do.  It's been long enough.  Please end this nightmare now.

Thank you.

Sharon Murch

Michaela's Mom

August 28, 2009