Adre'anna Jackson

UPDATE: Adre'anna's remains were discovered in an abandoned field in April of 2006. The police did find a homeless man that they took in for questioning in the case, but released him for lack of evidence. Currently, the police are looking at the possibility that Jack McClellan, a self-professed pedofile, may have been involved, though they have released no information to the public due to the on-going investigation.     

The story so far:Adre'anna Jackson got up to go to school on Friday, the morning of December 2, 2005. The petite 10-year-old girl lived in an apartment in Lakewood, Washington with her mother, Yvette Gervais and her stepfather, John Frederici. Adre'anna, a fourth grade student at Tillicum Elementary School, left home at 7:45 that morning and started walking to school. She was accompanied part of the way by her stepfather. Neither of them realized that school was closed because of heavy snow and the cold.

Adre'anna failed to return home at the usual time and her worried mother went out to look for her. When she could not find her daughter, Gervais contacted local law enforcement authorities and reported her missing. Gervais, Frederici, family members, and neighbors were questioned. Adre'anna had no history of running away and authorities initially did not suspect foul play.

More than 120 police and rescue volunteers quickly began an area-wide search for Adre'anna, using specially trained dogs. As the hours passed, weather conditions worsened and concerns for the child's safety increased. "She has been gone 14 hours now," said Detective Mike Zaro of the Lakewood Police Department. "Obviously the worst case scenario is somebody had done some harm to her and she is injured somewhere." It was not believed Adre'anna was lost.

As the days passed, local law enforcement authorities still had not located the missing child and decided to call off the search until further information had been gathered. "Our search crews were large enough to be able to cover all the likely places where Adre'anna might have gone," said Assistant Police Chief Dave Hall. "At this point, there's no benefit in having people search the same areas already searched. We haven't given up hope. Right now we don't have a whole lot, but we're going to continue interviewing and re-interviewing people to make sure we don't miss anything."

Two 10-year-old girls reported seeing Adre'anna and one of them, who knew her, told authorities she spoke with Adre'anna. The missing child told her she was sad and did not want to go back home. Public pleas were made by family members to the missing girl. "Please come home. We're not mad," pleaded the distraught mother.

The FBI was called in to help in the investigation and used a dive team to search nearby American Lake with sonar equipment. They could find no trace of the missing girl. Foul play and abduction have not been ruled out of the investigation.

All law enforcement authorities consider Adre'anna Jackson to be a missing and endangered person. She was last seen wearing a heavy black jacket, blue shirt, blue jeans and white tennis shoes. Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Adre'anna Jackson and/or this case is urged to immediately contact the Lakewood Police Department (1-253-830-5000) or the nearest FBI office.

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