THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW Series on Sex Offenders Kidnapped by a pedophile: the Shasta Groene tragedy; discussion of child predators and how we as a nation can get child predators off the streets

The Oprah Winfrey Show 4:00 AM EST
October 4, 2005 Tuesday

HOST: Oprah Winfrey
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Ellen Rakieten
KIDNAPPED BY A PEDOPHILE: THE SHASTA GROENE TRAGEDY


OPRAH WINFREY: Tell them I'm coming down.

Unidentified Man #1: Oprah's on the way.

Unidentified Man #2: Ready music.

Unidentified Woman #1: ...four, three, two, one.

Unidentified Man #2: Roll tape, music back. Bring it up.

WINFREY: A murderous rampage: two small children missing. Weeks later, Shasta Groene is found alive with a convicted sex offender.

He should have been behind bars the first time. So sick of it!

Her father speaks out with the latest. Plus, we need to capture these criminals. Details on our $100,000 reward, next.

Today I stand before you to say, in no uncertain terms--as a matter of fact, in terms that I hope are very certain--that I have had enough. With every breath in my body, whatever it takes and, most importantly, with your support, we are going to move heaven and earth to stop a sickness, a darkness, that I believe is the definition of evil that's been going on for far too long. The children of this nation, the United States of America, are being stolen, raped, tortured and killed by sexual predators who are walking right into your homes. How many times does it have to happen, and how many children have to be sacrificed?
What price are we, as a society, willing to continue to pay before we rise up and take to the street and say `Enough, enough, enough'?
(Excerpt from videotape)
WINFREY: People in Petaluma, California, still remember when their small town became the setting for a national nightmare. That was when 12-year-old Polly Klaas was kidnapped from a slumber party. After six long weeks of searching, a tragic conclusion. Police found Polly's broken body in a field. Her killer, Richard Allen Davis, had an 11-page rap sheet filled with violent acts against women. Twice, Davis escaped from mental hospitals, but after serving only eight years in prison, Davis was released early on good behavior.
Just months later, another child, another brutal crime. This man, Jesse Timmendequas, lured seven-year-old Megan Kanka. He raped her, he strangled her and dumped her body in a park. Megan's killer lived across the street. Nobody in this quiet neighborhood knew he was a twice convicted sex offender.
Nine-year-old Amber Haggerman was snatched from a parking lot where she loved to ride her bicycle.
Unidentified Woman #2: I want my baby back, so, please, if you have my baby, please, I beg you.
WINFREY: Amber's body was found days later in this dirty creek. Her killer is still at large.
(End of excerpt)
WINFREY: Polly, Megan, Amber--three beautiful little girls, each innocent face a symbol for this sickening wave of crimes that continues to spread like a deadly virus in our country with too many victims to count. Take a look: This is America's wall of shame.
(Excerpt from videotape)
WINFREY: Little Samantha Runnion, just five years old, nabbed while playing with a friend, sexually abused, suffocated, her body left naked and exposed on a hilltop.
(Excerpt from audiotape)
Unidentified Woman #3: Was it an adult body?
Unidentified Man #3: No. It's a baby. I think it might even be the little girl on the news.
(End of excerpt)
WINFREY: Her killer, Alejandro Avila, had twice before been charged with molesting little girls.
Police say Lydia Rupp was stolen from her home by her mother's boyfriend and taken to Mexico. No one knew Fernando Aguero's shady past as a sex offender. Aguero awaits trial in Mexico.
A car wash security camera captured these haunting images of Carlie Bruscha's kidnapping, and again, we heard the same sad echo.
Unidentified Man #4: The body of a beautiful 11-year-old girl, Carlie Bruscha, has been found.
WINFREY: Joseph P. Smith, a repeat offender, had recently violated his parole. Yet, he walked the streets a free man the day police say he grabbed Carlie. His trial is pending.
Sarah Lunde was 13 when she was found dead, half-clothed, in a fish pond. David Onstott faces trial for Sarah's murder. He has a disturbing history of sexual deviance, drug use, stalking, assault and rape. A month before Sarah disappeared, he was arrested, but was released the next day on $1,000 bail.
And just this past February, Jessica Lunsford was taken in the night from her bedroom.
Mr. MARK LUNSFORD (Daughter Jessica Was Kidnapped And Murdered): I really need as much help as I can get right now. I just--I want my daughter home.
WINFREY: Search teams canvassed western Florida looking for Jessica, while just 150 yards from her home, police say John Couey, a man with a history of violence and sex crimes, kept Jessica alive for days, sexually assaulting the nine-year-old before burying her alive in his back yard. Couey faces the death penalty in his upcoming trial.
The bitter truth is Jessica's face is just one among thousands. We've seen them on billboards and fliers and newscasts, but maybe, just maybe, this will be the young face that makes us all say `Enough, enough already.'
(End of excerpt)
WINFREY: This is the face of Shasta Groene. She's a little girl whose heart-wrenching story is simply, I think, the last straw.
(Excerpt from audiotape)
Unidentified Man #5: There's blood all over the door.
Unidentified Woman #4: Oh?
Unidentified Man #5: Nobody comes to the door.
(End of excerpt)
(Excerpt from videotape)
WINFREY: On May 16th, sheriffs arrived at a sinister crime scene in Couer d'Alene, Idaho. There, they discovered the bludgeoned bodies of Brenda Groene, her boyfriend Mark McKenzie and her 13-year-old son Slade. Just a few miles away, Brenda's mother receives a chilling phone call.
Ms. DARLENE TORRES (Shasta Groene's Grandmother): She says, `Look at that tape going across the TV,' so I did and, of course, I just started falling on my knees, panicking, praying. I'm sorry. That--the way they described the house, there's only one there, and that was my daughter's.
WINFREY: The horror is magnified as Brenda's ex-husband Steve is hit with more gut-wrenching news. His youngest children, nine-year-old Dylan and eight-year-old Shasta are missing.
Mr. STEVE GROENE (Shasta Groene's Father): The only thing that really kept me going was just, you know, thinking that the two kids had to be out there alive.
WINFREY: Within hours, a nationwide search is under way for Shasta, her brother Dylan and the depraved predator who killed their family.
Mr. GROENE: Please, please, release my children safely. They had nothing to do with any of this.
WINFREY: Six agonizing weeks later, a surveillance camera captures Shasta in a convenience store with this man. His name is Joseph Duncan, a wanted pedophile. Late that night, Duncan enters a Denny's restaurant with Shasta just miles from her home.
Unidentified Man #6: I ran into a waitress and I told her, you know, `I think it's Shasta. I'm 90 percent sure it is. Will you go in and, you know, check it out and tell your manager?'
Unidentified Woman #5: I first saw Shasta when I came back from my break and looked for the missing children's poster, wasn't there. When I went to the tables, when I really was sure that it was her.
(From phone call) I've got a little girl here with a tall gentleman and she looks so much like that Shasta.
WINFREY: The manager calls 911. Within minutes, police descend upon the restaurant and capture Joseph Duncan. The first thing Shasta says to police is, `Please let me see my dad.' But where is Shasta's brother Dylan?
Ms. TORRES: We were thrilled to hear that Shasta was OK, but within an hour or so, we went through a lot of sorrow because we also found out that Dylan was gone.
(End of excerpt)
WINFREY: Two days later, detectives found young Dylan's charred remains at this remote Montana campsite. They also learned that Joseph Duncan has an appalling record of violent sexual crimes against children. Police suspect that he stalked this family using night vision goggles, peering through their windows before he attacked. Steve Groene never imagined that this would happen to his children. Now his two sons, Slade and Dylan, are dead, and his only daughter Shasta is a survivor, but she will never be the same. We'll be right back.
Next, we'll find out how Shasta's doing when we come back.
(Announcements)
(Excerpt from videotape)
WINFREY: Police say Dylan and Shasta Groene were taken from their Idaho home by convicted sex offender Joseph Duncan, their family murdered in cold blood. A nationwide manhunt lasted for weeks. Dylan's burned body would eventually be found at a remote Montana campsite. But until a tip led to Duncan's capture, little Shasta endured a horrific 48 days in captivity before being reunited with her father Steve.
(End of excerpt)
WINFREY: Have you-all talked about, in any way, what happened? Did the therapist tell you not to talk about it or wait until she talks about it?
Mr. GROENE: We've been kind of asked not to really ask her questions. We've been instructed, if she talks about them on her own, to definitely listen to her and let her talk about it.
WINFREY: Where was she during those six dreadful weeks?
Mr. GROENE: Well, it's our understanding that she was at a couple different campsites, which they're not really like designated camping areas, just out in the wilderness.
WINFREY: With Duncan.
Mr. GROENE: With Duncan
WINFREY: The whole time.
Mr. GROENE: The whole time.

WINFREY: Steve says that the police report of Shasta's ordeal is apparent living hell. As you listen, picture your own little eight-year-old daughter going through this. Shasta told police that she was in bed when her mother woke her up and told her to come to the living room where Duncan was waiting. Her mother, mother's boyfriend and 13-year-old brother Slade were bound with zip ties and duct tape while Shasta watched. Then she and Dylan were tied up outside near a swing set. She told police that she could hear screams from inside the house as the three were bludgeoned to death. Shasta says that she was taken to a remote campsite in the mountains and that Duncan bragged to her about the killings and showed her the hammer that he had used to bludgeon her family.

Is it true that after Shasta finished telling police all of this that had happened to her, they had to sedate her because it was so overwhelming for her to have to go back to that space?

Mr. GROENE: That might have been part of it, but being that she was sexually abused, they had to do some examinations also, and I believe that that's a part of why she was sedated, so that they would be able to do those examinations without further traumatizing her.

WINFREY: You sat in the same courtroom with Joseph Duncan.

Mr. GROENE: Yes.

WINFREY: Yeah. When he pleaded not guilty, what was that like?

Mr. GROENE: The thing that bothered me the most is that he didn't speak at all. He stared forward pretty much the whole time.

WINFREY: Did he ever look at you?

Mr. GROENE: Yes.

WINFREY: And did you look at him?

Mr. GROENE: Yes. No, I glared at him.

WINFREY: Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Joseph Duncan. Is that what you want?

Mr. GROENE: I believe that's what's deserved in this case, and I believe if you take somebody's life, you should give yours up in return. This guy took four lives, and unfortunately, we can only kill him once.

WINFREY: On top of all the tragedy that you've endured recently, I heard you got more bad news.

Mr. GROENE: Yes. I was recently diagnosed with cancer of the larynx. I will have to have radiation.

WINFREY: Will you get your voice back eventually, you hope?

Mr. GROENE: That's unknown. It--there have been cases where people's voices return to normal, cases where obviously people's voices varied a little bit, and cases where people lost their voices totally from it, so...

WINFREY: Next, why was a dangerous predator like Joseph Duncan out of prison? That's what I want to know.

Mr. GROENE: Me, too.

WINFREY: And could someone just like him be living in your neighborhood? You will be screaming at the TV. Stay tuned.

And coming up, a little girl who endured days of torture tells her terrifying story.

(Announcements)

WINFREY: Shasta Groene and her brother Dylan were missing for six weeks this summer after repeat sex offender Joseph Duncan allegedly broke into their home. He had been observing them for some time, killed their mother, killed her boyfriend and their brother. Miraculously, Shasta was spotted with Joseph Duncan at a Denny's restaurant near her home and was rescued six weeks later. Dylan's charred body was found a few days later.

Shasta's grandmother, Darlene, said she heard about this nightmare on television and nobody can even imagine what that's like until it happens to you, and everybody thinks it will not happen to them.

Ms. TORRES: It will never happen to you, yes.

WINFREY: Yes. You were the first to have to tell Steve what happened. What was that like?

Ms. TORRES: I just--it was hard, and, of course, I went into shock right away and then we tried--Steve tried to call the authorities and, of course, they wouldn't give us much information at all, and then the--you know, there was five people in there. There was only three to be found, and so where were the other two? And it just...

Mr. GROENE: Right.

WINFREY: And as weeks passed, do you still hold out the hope, Brandy, as Shasta's aunt?

BRANDY (Shasta Groene's Aunt): You have to.

WINFREY: You know, so I have been doing shows like this for so long, and I have shed a lot of tears about children who have been raped and stolen and children who are murdered. I'm tired of crying about it.

Ms. TORRES: Yes.

WINFREY: I'm really tired of crying about it. Tired of crying about it. I am so angry, so I can't even imagine if you actually have somebody who's been through this. I am so angry. I'm angry at the system, and I'm angry at us. I'm angry that we are a people that says we love and we care about children, but what we really love and care about are our own children, and I'm angry because we don't see that Shasta is your daughter, that Amber and Polly and Megan and all of the children whose names we heard, they're your daughters and sons, and until we rise up in the streets and change the laws in this country, it will continue to happen, and every time, it will be more heinous than the next. So when it happened to Polly Klaas--and that was the first time in this nation we'd ever heard of anybody going into somebody's home and taking their chi--everybody's like, `Oh, my God, that's so terrible.'

And now it's not one child, it's an entire family shot up and taking the child and held the child and killed the son. It gets more and more heinous, and the reason that keeps happening in front of our faces is because we close our eyes and we shut down to it, and we say, `Oh, isn't that a shame for them, but this could never happen to me.' And until we rise up in the streets and have the laws changed, we, the people, are the government, and we can change the laws so that when in this country a child is molested the first time, that person is put behind bars and is never let out! Is never let out!

I'm so sick of it. I'm so sick of it. I'm so sick of it. I am sick of it. I am sick of it, and I know you're sick of it. I'm sick of our short-term memory. I'm sick of us remembering it for a time and then it passes and then you have to wait till the next most heinous thing happens and you said, `Oh, Lord, it shouldn't happen, it shouldn't happen.' We have got to change it, and only we can. It only continues to happen and it continues to get worse because it's the universe saying, `How bad does it have to get, and do you really care? Do you really care or do you only really care about yourself?' Because when you hear about this Joseph Duncan, he should have been behind bars the first time! The first time!

Who was this sick man that destroyed this family? This is the part that I'm hoping will make you scream. This was not Joseph Duncan's first attack. Oh, no, because he has a long record of sex crimes against children dating back 25 years. And yet, he was out walking the streets, because we, as a country, aren't really sure how we feel about sex offenders. We're not really sure, and that's why they are allowed to walk the streets. When we get sure, when we decide that when you molest a child the first time--I don't care whose son you are, whose uncle, whose father you are--when you do it the first time, we will put you behind bars for life so you cannot walk the streets again. That's the only way it's going to change.

We can't decide how we feel about it.

We can't decide how we feel about it. Well, tell me how you feel about this.
(Excerpt from videotape)
WINFREY: Joseph Duncan's story begins here in Tacoma, Washington, where he first showed signs of disturbing deviant behavior. At 16, Duncan raped a younger boy at gunpoint, beat him, burned him with a cigarette. Duncan was caught and convicted, sent to a mental hospital for treatment, but refused to cooperate, so Duncan was put away, sentenced to a maximum of 20 years in jail, but he only served 12 of them. Then he was released on parole.
Duncan was classified a Level III sex offender, the most dangerous and likely to reoffend. At first, he followed the rules, reporting regularly to his parole officer, but after two years, he slipped from sight. For months, he lived on the run, bouncing from state to state. Authorities now believe that during this time, he may have killed two other girls in Seattle and raped and murdered a 10-year-old boy in California. But when police finally caught up with the fugitive in Missouri, they knew nothing of those killings. They threw him back in jail for violating parole. Four years later, he was out again. Duncan settled in Fargo, North Dakota, registering as a sex offender as Megan's Law requires. Soon, Duncan began writing an online diary, posting photos of himself and his bizarre ramblings.
Then Duncan's life took another sinister turn. At a school playground in Minnesota, a man matching Duncan's description molested two young boys. `The boogeyman will get ya' he writes online, `so I've been accused of molesting little boys. How could I?' Police tied Duncan to the playground incident. He was arrested and appeared before Judge Thomas Schroeder. Despite Duncan's chilling record of sexual violence against children and his history of violating parole, Judge Schroeder set bail at just $15,000. The judge claims he never knew the full extent of Duncan's sadistic past.
Judge THOMAS SCHROEDER: (From KSTP-TV, Minneapolis-St. Paul) You don't have a crystal ball. Like any case where a person springs and does something bad, hindsight's always 20/20, and this is about the worst scenario that could possibly happen.
WINFREY: Duncan wrote a personal check and walked out of jail a free man. His online journal began to read like postcards from hell. He wrote, `It is a battle between me and my demons. I'm afraid, very afraid. If they win, then a lot of people will be badly hurt.'
(End of excerpt)
WINFREY: Later, when we come back, I'm going to take you inside the detailed diary of one of the worst pedophiles on record. It's called the "Molester's Manual." So you get to see how these guys think, so you know there is no rehabilitation. We'll be right back.
Later, stay tuned. It's your chance to capture a child predator on the run.
(Announcements)
(Excerpt from videotape)
WINFREY: These are just some of America's most wanted sex offender, child molesters who are not only walking our streets, but many, experts say, most likely to strike again. The FBI wants William George Barney, charged with molesting a 12-year-old boy for six years. Barney failed to show up in court and has been on the lam now for almost five years. Officials say he considers himself a survivalist. And he may be hiding in a rural area.
And look out for this man, Walter Edward Myer. As the recreational director of an Alabama school, Myer allegedly befriended his students and took them to his home for weekends and holidays, where he sodomized and raped them. He's also charged with producing pornography. Myer's been on the run since 1997.
Richard Steve Goldberg is considered one of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted fugitives. Goldberg's prey of choice: girls under the age of 10. Federal agents say they found pornographic pictures of his victims on Goldberg's computer. He has ties to New Jersey, Nevada, Colorado, Arizona and Georgia.
The hunt continues for Wayne Arthur Silsbee, a former school bus driver accused of sexually abusing young girls. When he wasn't driving a school bus filled with children, he worked as a baby-sitter. Silsbee has been on the loose for almost 10 years.
(End of excerpt)
WINFREY: So the men you're looking at right now are an absolute danger to your children. Before one more child lands in the headlines, we need to capture these criminals and put them away for good. And today, we are beginning a child predator watch, and I'm calling on the millions of you who are tuned in right now to do your part. If you have any information about these men, go to your phone right now and call your local FBI.
And here is my pledge. It's not a lot. I know there isn't a lot any of us can do as one person, but as a group, there's a lot we can do. But as one person, I plan to work with law enforcement officials, and if they tell me that one of you turned in one of these fugitives that we are exposing today and that information leads to the capture and arrest of one of these men, I will personally l give a $100,000 cash reward, and we're going to be posting the faces of these men and others on oprah.com every Friday, so that you can go to oprah.com, and maybe you know them. Maybe you don't. Maybe you see them, look in their eyes, maybe it's something about the way you saw them move, something.
Just months ago, Jessica Lunsford, who we came to know as the adorable girl in the pretty pink hat, was yet another victim to this evil sickness. Her grieving father, Mark Lunsford, took us inside Jessica's bedroom. It has remained virtually untouched since the day she was kidnapped.
(Excerpt from videotape)
WINFREY: This room is filled with memories.
Mr. LUNSFORD: It's hard to come in here.
WINFREY: Memories of nine-year-old Jessica Lunsford.
Mr. LUNSFORD: I still look for her. I still look for her to come home.
WINFREY: In February, Jessica was taken from her bedroom, raped and then buried alive just steps away from her home.
Mr. LUNSFORD: Maybe 150 yards, that white trailer there.
WINFREY: The alleged killer, convicted sex offender John Couey, was living right across the street. Jessica's heartbroken father Mark will never forget the day he won that hat for her.
Mr. LUNSFORD: We were at the fair the Sunday before, and she seen all these hats, and she wanted one. I don't want the hat. I don't want this stuff. I just--I want my daughter.
WINFREY: He also won a stuffed dolphin for Jessica, the one she clung to as her young life ended.
Mr. LUNSFORD: And it was purple and it had a white belly, and when he took her out of here, she--he let her take her dolphin with her, and when they found her, he buried her alive and she was holding onto her dolphin.
WINFREY: Left with only memories, this grieving father has made it his life's mission to never let another child suffer.
(End of excerpt)
WINFREY: You believe that John Couey stalked your daughter, watching her for weeks, before he snatched her from her bedroom.
Mr. LUNSFORD: I think he did, because he worked at the school
WINFREY: He worked at the school. And so when the search was on, was his place searched in the beginning?
Mr. LUNSFORD: No.
WINFREY: No, it was not. One week after Jessica was kidnapped and murdered, John Couey was videotaped at a local bar, laughing and drinking.
What do you--I don't even know. What do you feel when you hear that, see that footage?
Mr. LUNSFORD: It's hard to swallow.
WINFREY: Yeah.
Mr. LUNSFORD: About like it is now.
WINFREY: About like it is now. And so I say for all of these children whose lives really were sacrificed, I believe, so that we could, in some way, see what's going on and make a change, and I know that you don't want your daughter's life to have been in vain.
Mr. LUNSFORD: Right.
WINFREY: You created Jessica's Law. Tell us what that is.
Mr. LUNSFORD: The Jessica Lunsford Act is a minimum of 25 years to life with lifetime supervision if you get out before life, and you'll wear a tracking device for the rest of your life.
WINFREY: And the law has been passed in Florida.
Mr. LUNSFORD: It--yes, it has.
WINFREY: Thank you, Mark.
Mr. LUNSFORD: Thank you.
WINFREY: Coming up, I can't wait to meet a heroic little girl who suffered the unthinkable but somehow was able to outsmart the vicious child molester who had held her captive. We'll be right back. I know.
(Announcements)
WINFREY: To give you a glimpse inside the mind of a child molester, authorities shared with us a perverse journal written by a sex offender in prison. The author uses his time behind bars not to be rehabilitated, but to meticulously map out his future attacks on children once he's out of jail. Parents, I want you to pay attention to the manipulative, calculating details of how and where and when this child hunter and other child hunters plan to catch their prey. No place, not even a hospital emergency room, is off-limits. Listen to this.
(Excerpt from videotape)
Unidentified Man #7: Park in hospital parking lot. Look for families with girls.
WINFREY: You're now inside the mind of a dangerous child predator, getting a first-hand look at what police are calling his "Molester Manual." Authorities in Louisiana found this chilling journal inside the convicted sex offender's jail cell. Page by page, he spelled out each sinister step. First, he fantasizes about finding his prey in a hospital emergency room.
Unidentified Man #7: Be sure family is small, not too many adults. Be sure children see you. Stand near counter, as if speaking with parents.
WINFREY: Now listen to the twisted conversation he imagines having with a little girl, who might be there with an injured sibling.
Unidentified Man #7: Tell her, `You need to be strong,' walk the girl to her car. Say, `We're going to eat. Remember, we must get some food for your parents, too.'
WINFREY: Here's how the predator envisions stalking vulnerable children at a shopping mall.
Unidentified Man #7: Walking around, looking for girls, homely-looking, poor. Make sure parents are elsewhere. Ask if parents ever buy them good quality clothes.
WINFREY: The neighborhood grocery store is his next imaginary stalking ground. Posing as a friend of the family is how he plans to prey upon a child shopping alone.
Unidentified Man #7: `Your mother said to pick up a box of tea bags. If you don't have enough money, I'll pay the difference.' Go get in the car. Wave at child coming out from the store. Let her come to car. Put bags in back seat. Have tape and tie-downs ready to use. Say, `If you don't do as I say, my friend will kill your mother.'
(End of excerpt)
WINFREY: Andy Kahan is a former probation officer for sex offenders and knows how their devious minds work. He's the director of Houston's crime victims unit, and stopping child predators is his passion. Well, the reason why I wanted to run the tape is because I wanted people to understand how calculating it is.
Mr. ANDY KAHAN (Director of Houston's Crime Victims Department): They're extremely calculating. They're devious. They're cunning. They're secretive. They're diabolical. They know how to play the game.
WINFREY: And you say that this is a national public health crisis.
Mr. KAHAN: Absolutely. The reality is most sex offenders are either on probation or they do a very short prison term, they're released on parole. Of the 500,000 sex offenders in this nation currently on the streets, about 25 percent--that's roughly 100,000 sex offenders right now are currently not in compliance with the rules and conditions of parole, probation and registry. That is a national public safety health crisis. And it's time that the nation realized that we have a war on sexual assault. We have an epidemic and we need--instead of yelling and screaming about the injustices of the world, just exactly what you're doing here today, we need to do something about it. We need to demand tougher sentences.
WINFREY: Absolutely, absolutely. Coming up, a brave little girl who endured days of a molester's torture tells her terrifying story. I'm with ya. I'm with ya 100 percent.
(Announcements)
WINFREY: Jennette Tamayo said many prayers for Shasta, Dylan and Jessica when they were missing, because she knew their terror firsthand.
(Excerpt from videotape)
WINFREY: Jennette Tamayo never knew she was being watched as she walked home alone from her school bus stop. Her final moments of freedom were captured by a neighbor's surveillance camera. Watch as the nine-year-old innocently walks right past her waiting attacker.
JENNETTE TAMAYO: I just got home from school. A few minutes later, someone knocked on my door. There was a man that I had never seen before. He asked me a couple of questions, and then a bit later, I started closing the door, and he pushed his way in and I got scared, and then he pulled me into my brother's room. He hurt me.
WINFREY: Jennette was raped.
TAMAYO: I was crying and then he handcuffed me and he took me to the garage. He tied my feet with some string. He put me in a box.
WINFREY: Just then, Jennette's mom and brother arrived home. The attacker brutally beat them both. The surveillance camera then shows the car speeding away from her house. Jennette was tied up in the back seat.
TAMAYO: I thought that he had killed my mom and my brother. I thought that he was going to kill me. I started screaming and crying to get people's attention, and he turns around and he starts stabbing me with a screwdriver in my neck, and blood started squirting out.
WINFREY: Jennette was taken to her attacker's home and held captive.
TAMAYO: I started to cry and then he came over with a knife and said that if I yelled or did something, he was going to kill me.
Unidentified Reporter: Nine-year-old Jennette Tamayo...
WINFREY: While Amber Alerts were issued, her family prayed and pleaded. Jennette endured repeated rapes and terrifying torture.
TAMAYO: He handcuffed me to the faucets of the shower with the water running. I was afraid to go to sleep. Every time that I would move, trying to get comfortable, he would say, `I'm going to hurt you if you move again.'
WINFREY: The dreadful ordeal went on day after day.
TAMAYO: I was on the couch, and all of a sudden, he grabs a pillow and he starts smothering me with it. I couldn't breathe, and the only thing that I can hear was my heart, and I was crying because I was telling him, `I don't want to die, I want to go my parents. I want to live. I want to graduate.'
I was praying to God, and then I said, `This is the end. I'm never going to go home.'
(End of excerpt)
WINFREY: Astonishingly, somehow this little nine-year-old girl at the time made a brave decision to outsmart her attack, David Montiel Cruz.
(Excerpt from videotape)
TAMAYO: I was determined to live. I didn't want him to hurt another child the same way he hurt me. I was trying to get his trust so I can get some evidence.
WINFREY: Jennette decided she needed to collect fingerprints.
TAMAYO: I still had my handcuffs on but I found a way to take them off. So I grabbed some evidence and then put my handcuffs back on.
WINFREY: Then she told Cruz, her captor, she was going to die.
TAMAYO: I told him that I had asthma and a disease that you can catch. I started making asthma noises. He said, `Come on, let's go.' He says, `If you tell anyone anything about me or something, I'm going to come back and kill your family and then kill you.'
WINFREY: Cruz dropped her off at a market. Detectives were stunned that she got away and had what they needed to catch her abductor. Jennette led investigators to her rapist's front door.
TAMAYO: And I told them, `You go left, then right, left, then right, now straight,' and there was the house.
Unidentified Man #8: I have never seen such a courageous little girl.
WINFREY: While knowing she prevailed over Cruz empowers here, frightening memories still haunt this very special hero three years later.
TAMAYO: I like to surround myself with guardian angels, because I feel like they protect me. I write in my diary in invisible ink because I don't want anybody to read what happened. When I see those stories in the news about other missing children, I start to cry. I prayed for Jessica and Shasta...
And let them find her safe and sound. Amen.
(End of excerpt)
WINFREY: Come on out, Jennette. Oh. Thank you so much for your courage. I don't know how many other children you might have saved by putting him behind bars. Thank you so much. And I know for the fathers and aunts and grandmothers here, this was a victory, and it also has to be hard, in some ways, because you know your daughter, your granddaughter didn't get away, but this is one that got away. The judge called this one of the most horrific crimes he had ever seen and sentenced David Montiel Cruz to more than 100 years in prison.
Thank you. We'll be right back.
Next, we're going to expose four more of the most wanted child molesters in America. It's your chance to do something.
(Announcements)
(Excerpt from videotape)
WINFREY: There is an estimated 100,000 sex offenders in this country who are living as fugitives. Please help us find them before they harm one more child. The FBI wants you to be on the lookout for this man, William C. Davis. After serving a short sentence for molesting children, Davis was released from prison. Now he's charged with performing deviant sex acts with an Indiana child.
Gary Lee St. John is charged with sexual assault on a six-year-old girl, but St. John skipped his trial. He's now on the run. He was last seen in Reno, Nevada.
This man is charged with sexual battery and fondling a child, but Edward Eugene Harper never showed up in court. He has eluded police for more than 10 years. The FBI believes he may be working on a ranch in Montana or Wyoming.

In 2002, Niles Scott was accused of raping a little girl in Ohio. He posted bond and has not been seen since. This former military man has strong ties to Cleveland, Ohio, and Jacksonville, Florida. And authorities warn he will likely strike again.
(End of excerpt)

WINFREY: If you think you have seen any of the men you are looking at right now, I want you to go to your phone and call your local FBI, because we have to get the sex offenders off of our streets and away from our children, and we have to change the laws.

Every week on oprah.com, we're going to feature the FBI's most wanted child predators. Log on every Friday. Memorize their faces because you could be the one. It just took one person to save Shasta, and you could be the one to save the next child. And here again is my pledge. I plan to work with law enforcement officials. If they tell me that you turned in one of these fugitives or were instrumental in helping them get one of these fugitives we are exposing today or on our oprah.com child predator watch list, and that information leads to the capture and arrest of one of these men, I will personally give a $100,000 reward. We'll be right back.
(Announcements)

WINFREY: Take a good look at these pictures and remember it is time. It's time to stand together and cry no more, but do something about it. Thank you, everybody.