Heather's story:
What REALLY happened the day the Detective came to my grandmother’s house and took away ALL of the happiness I once had there ...
My grandmother, cousin, and I, were up late one night until around 4:30 A.M. in the morning watching movies together, then all three of us fell asleep on my grandmother’s queen size bed (fully clothed). Than, my cousin wakes me up and tells me to go to the other room, so I do. I was still half-asleep, and wasn't thinking at the time. So, I went to the other room, which was my bedroom, and fell asleep on my bed. After about 5 min of trying to fall back asleep (I only got 2-3 hours of sleep), I hear some guy I don't even know SCREAMING at me to get up, but I was half-asleep, and wasn't thinking at all, so I just ignore the guy while he continues to try and get my lazy butt out of bed. Than I hear him coming closer to my bed where I was sleeping at the time, but when he got about 4 feet away from me, I heard my cousin stop him as she told him, "I'll get her up." Finally, I'm awake, and I'm now thinking, so I get up when I hear my cousin telling me to get up out of bed. Then, I hear her telling me to go outside because this man that I see standing behind her wants to ask me some questions.
So I walk outside and he tells my cousin to wait in the garage while he tells me to walk over to his car. I was still a little sleepy, and I didn't know what to think of this, I didn't know if this guy was a rapist, robber, killer, or anything like that, so I did what he told me to do, because I didn't want my cousin or I getting hurt. He then walks with me over to his car. Once him & I reach his car, he glances back at my cousin, then he begins to question me... He said, "What is your name?" I responded with, "Heather Leann Willis." After he wrote that down in his little booklet, he said, "Where do you live?" I responded with, " Plant City, Florida, with my mom."
Then he calls my cousin over, and she says, "Christina Brown, Murphy, North Carolina." So he separates my cousin and I further apart (so she couldn't hear what he asked me etc.). He tells me to step over to the other side of the house, by the bushes, so I do. Then he begins to ask me even more questions. (He asked me OVER 20 questions.) During the time he asked me those questions he didn't show me ANY KIND of Identification or tell me who he was. He called me a liar, asked me if I was "on the pill," harassed me, embarrassed me, terrorized me, threatened me, scared me, made me feel REALLY uncomfortable, said that I was a runaway, yelled at me, got mad if I didn't give him the answers he WANTED me to give him, told the people on the other line of his walkie-talkie that they would have to take me away from my family, and made me cry.
After he was done questioning me, it was my cousin's turn, and I'm pretty sure he could tell I was about to BURST out into tears, so he told me to go and wait in the garage while he questioned my cousin. When I got to the garage, I sat down and started crying, and even though I tried to hide it, I couldn't, the tears were still falling from my eyes. Suddenly, my uncle said, "Heather, get your shoes on, we're going to the mall." So I went inside and got my shoes on. Once he got done questioning my cousin, she walked inside where I was, and noticed that I was crying, and said, "Well, Heather, they're gonna take us away, but DON'T cry. About 2 min after that, she gave me a bold look, so I said, " ok ," calmed myself, and wiped the tears from my eyes. My uncle than told us to get in the car, so we did. Once we got in the car, I saw the guy get back into his car, and drive away. Once he got out of the driveway, and out of our way so we could leave, we pulled out, and drove off to the mall to see my grandmother, and tell her what was happening.
When we got to the mall, we went straight for the place that she worked at. Thankfully, she was there, but my nerves were jumping, and I was still very upset about what was happening. After we got done telling her what has happened earlier that morning, she talked to my uncle, and when she got done talking to him, she was gonna take us to Old Orchid Beach to calm my cousin and I down after what had happened to us earlier that morning, but she took us to a cafe that is owned by one of her friend’s mother, so my cousin and I would maybe get something to eat because we hadn't ate all morning, but we couldn't even eat after being harassed by that guy, that I later found out was a detective doing an investigation.
[…]
We were completely clueless to what was happening, and to what might happen to us in the future. My nerves were shot from what was going on, and I just wanted to go back home (my grandparents house). […] my grandmother, cousin and I, all got into the truck and went back to my grandmothers house. After we got back to my grandmothers house, it was almost night, so we decided to go out to eat.
But then the police officer that was there the day my dog got hit by a car and showed us the way to the vet’s office, pulled into the drive way, as he was checking to see if my dog was ok or not. After he pulled up into the drive way, my grandfather was still upset about what had happened earlier that morning, so he went and asked the police officer if he was there to say he was sorry for making his granddaughter (me) cry, and was pretty mad at the police officer. So my grandmother walked over there and got my grandfather under control, talked with the police officer, and told him about how we were planning to go to Six Flags, but we didn't know if we should or not, and he said, that it would be no problem, it was just an investigation, and for us to go ahead to Six Flags. It wouldn't be a problem.
Then, after my grandmother got done talking with the detective, he pulled out of the drive way, and drove off, while my grandmother got into the truck, and we all went to the mall an picked up my Dad and then went to Denny's for dinner. We had a good time at Denny's, as we laughed, relaxed a lot, got things off of our minds, and had a good time together. After we got done eating, laughing, etc., we left and went back to my grandmother’s house for a good nights sleep.
After we got back to my grandmother's house, everyone but my cousin and I went to sleep. My cousin and I couldn't sleep because of what had happened earlier that morning. So we stayed up talking about what had happened, how we felt about it and packed our clothes for our trip to Six Flags. Then my grandmother got up and told my cousin and I to put our bags in the car while she got my dad up, because we were gonna leave for Six Flags. By the time my cousin and I got done putting our bags in the truck, my grandmother already had my dad up, and he was ready to go, but my grandmother, cousin and I still had to finish getting ready before we could leave. About 15 min after my dad got ready, my grandmother, cousin and I were ready to go. So, we loaded up in the truck, and left for Six Flags...
-- Heather Leann Willis