I am sure you receive a lot of letters asking you to print them so that we can thank people.
This letter is one of those. I would like to send out thank you cards to let everyone know how wonderful and helpful these people were to me at a bad time in my life and made it a little better and definitely easier to get on with my life.
Let me explain. On Sept. 28 at midnight 20 years ago,1980, my life completely changed. For the better or worse, it changed. was kidnapped from my home here in Carson City and a lot of new and old people came into my life.
I met a lot of people from the police station who treated me wonderful especially looking back as an adult on how they treated me being 11 years old in a very sensitive matter.
Bill Luchetti and Dan Knuckles are just a few of the people that I got to know the best. They were wonderful and they did a great job. All of the other nameless police officers that did everything they could to get this case solved and a monster off of the street I thank you from the bottom of my heart even though I don't know your names.
Charlie Cockrell is another one of my heroes. Tim and Joyce Smith who were there from the first step and are still a huge part of my life. Evan Gannon and Gordon Smiley for being there for my dad and helping him stay calm.
There are also people that were there and are there all the time for me and my family and they are Angelo and Suzanne. Uncle Bruce and Aunt Patty for letting Janis and I live with them for the first few months after everything happened. Mrs.Todd and all of the students in her sixth grade class for letting me know that you were thinking about me and keeping me in your thoughts. Mark Swann and everyone that I have called in the middle of the night to talk to when I freak out.
You are some of the most important people to me, because you are the ones that keep me going everyday. The two people that have to deal with a little bit of my nightmare daily are my sisters Janis Hadlock and Martezia Sanchez.
My biggest thanks go to my parents Dick and Jeannie Hadlock. My dad is the best not only for being a parent and going through this but also for two years before. He was raising two daughters by himself at age 30. This was not as common as it is now. I believe he did a wonderful job and he did
keep me safe, even while I was with Russell White.
He gave me the ability to be able to get away and to deal with this ordeal the best that I can. I feel that I do a very good job of not dwelling. I do have to say I see myself as a survivor not as a victim. There are times when I just get so scared that I sit up all night long and cannot sleep. Not because I am afraid that Russell White will get me but because I believe that this could happen again, and now that my youngest sister lives with me I do not think I would be able to handle this happening to her or anyone else.
Like the day I heard about the young girl from Lake Tahoe, the thought of knowing how terrifying that is and to think that a young child has to go through something that awful just puts me into a rage and then sorrow for the family.
Anyway, I just wanted to thank a few people and I am sure that I missed a ton of you. I would like to thank you also and apologizes for forgetting you at this moment in time.
I would like to say one more thing. Everyone no matter how young or old that this happens to it is a travesty. It can either make someone strong, tear them down or both. The thing is it never leaves them so whether the sentence to the offender is sentenced a short time or life they have made such an impact on the person, family and community that the crime takes place in it is never enough.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart,
DEBI HADLOCK
Carson City
