And Never See Her Again (Paperback)

On March 26 1999, in Saginaw, Texas, 6-year-old Opal Jennings was playing with two other children in her grandmother's side yard when a black car drove up. A man got out and snatched Opal, whisking her away in his vehicle. It all happened in a flash, before her horrified grandparents could react. Local law enforcement and the FBI organized a massive search throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area, while Opal's photograph was widely circulated in newspapers and on television. A probation officer noted that on March 27 - one day after Opal's kidnapping - ordinarily slovenly sex offender Richard Lee "Ricky" Franks, 30, had cut his long hair and was clean-shaven and neatly dressed. Why had he suddenly cleaned up his act? Franks, who'd been convicted of molesting his brother's 8-year-old daughter, admitted to sexually abusing another young female relative. He confessed to having had Opal in his car, but claimed he'd only been giving her a ride and let her go unharmed. His first trial ended in a hung jury, but at long last, in September 2000, a second jury would determine Franks' guilt in the disappearance of Opal Jennings. Yet it wouldn't be until December 2003 that proof of her fate would be discovered.