Mother receives letter from missing girl

[TexasStooge]

By KIMBERLY DURNAN and APRIL KINSER / WFAA.com

The mother of a missing Mesquite girl has received a letter from her 12-year-old daughter, who believes she is on vacation with her stepfather, visiting the beach and New York City.

Angela Hudachek told Dallas Web sites today that Jami Hicks believes she’s “touring the world,” and has visited Busch Gardens in Virginia, Times Square in New York, Six Flags and the Atlantic Ocean. She indicated they were headed to Hershey, Penn., “to see where chocolate is made,” Hudachek said.

“That letter is about the only hope I’ve seen so far,” she said .

Police and family members say they believe James Hudachek left with Jami on the evening of Sept. 3 while her mother was out of town, leaving the couple’s twin 9-year-old sons home alone. Angela Hudachek’s oldest daughter discovered them missing on the morning of Sept. 4.

Police issued an Amber alert for Jami three days later, on the morning of Sept. 7.

South Carolina authorities issued an alert early Saturday after getting a “confirmed sighting” of the pair in Charleston. It since has been canceled.

Angela Hudachek said Jami wrote the letter to her half-brothers. The envelope was addressed in her husband’s handwriting and postmarked Thursday from Pennsylvania, she said.

“It makes me feel a little bit better that she’s fine,” she said. “She’s feeling homesick. He (James) didn’t have to mail it.”

The letter arrived Saturday. She has turned it over to Mesquite police, who told her they had gotten a “good lead” outside of Hershey.

A spokeswoman for the Mesquite Police Department did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.

Lt. David Holl with the Derry Township Police Department in Hershey said that so far, there have been no sightings of the pair, although authorities were aware of the letter.

Security officials at Hersheypark and Chocolate World were monitoring the gates using video cameras and photos of Jami and her stepfather.

Police were checking area motels and Mesquite detectives also had visited the area, Holl said.

On Friday, Child Protective Services asked a judge to grant the agency custody of Jami and her brothers, saying all three could be in danger. "We feel that mother may not be protecting her children from risk," Marissa Gonzales, a CPS spokeswoman, told The Dallas Morning News.

Angela Hudachek has said that Jami told her that her stepfather touched her inappropriately when she was 6, but she believed her husband when he said they were just playing. She has said Hudachek had long been obsessed with her daughter, but has denied awareness of any type of abuse.

Jami’s biological father, Sanford Hicks of Elk City, Okla., said he had learned about the CPS action through media reports.

“Angie had called me that CPS is stepping in. She wanted me to get custody and keep that from happening,” he said. “I don’t want the state to get her.”

Hicks said he was distraught about his missing daughter.

“I just want to jump in the car and go look for her myself,” he said. “If I had the money or a credit card, I probably would.”

[Yankeegirl]

Well its sad to hear that kind of story, but I think thats it is nice of her dad to let her send a letter to her mother.. If I was her mother I would feel a little better knowing that she is on "vacation"... I really hope that this story has a happy ending, and as far as the father, he needs to have his head checked.. and thats putting it nicely...