her name is pepper. i lived a secret life. she was kidnapped at age four. we got in the car, and we never went back. she spent decades trying to find her way home again, and she finally made it. or, so she thought. i said, i think that i am rhonda patricia christine. i said, do you know her? and there was a long pause. her story had many ups and downs. when i looked at the email, i just could not even believe it. but after so many tears, so many years and so many turns in her story. i was like, wow. there are still more stunning twists to be revealed. it is amazing, the best gift ever. welcome to dateline. a four year old girl was adopted and raised by her kidnappers. for decades, she searched for her family, and her identity. her story has an extraordinary ending, but as it turns out, that ending was just the beginning. here is keith morrison. our story begins with this much mother of a teenage daughter. a woman who had spent much of h
four. we got in the car, and we never went back. she spent decades trying to find her way home again, and she finally made it. or, so she thought. i said, i think that i am rhonda patricia christine. i said, do you know her? and there was a long pause. her story had many ups and downs. when i looked at the email, i just could not even believe it. but after so many tears, so many years and so many turns in her story. i was like, wow. there are still more stunning twists to be revealed. it is amazing, the best gift ever. welcome to dateline. a four year old girl was adopted and raised by her kidnappers. for decades, she searched for her family, and her identity. her story has an extraordinary ending, but as it turns out, that ending was just the beginning. here is keith morrison. our story begins with this much mother of a teenage daughter. a woman who had spent much of her life trying to figure out who she was. what was her name? where did s
Childless home. nothing left but the photographs of the little girl who stopped a growing up for, them. at four. but now, out of the blue had a phone call. and here she was. how are you? i m good. it s definitely a gift. not only do we get a daughter, we got a granddaughter. just in time. barbara had terminal cancer i would die a year later. still, back then kill, they celebrated will renee joined them for rhonda s birthday and the christie s 30th wedding anniversary. an amazing reunion. of course dateline was happy to broadcast all around the country. on march 25th, 2011. we had no idea that something quite unbelievable would happen. because one of the people who tuned in that night was a woman named jeri. and oh what a story she had to tell. it was a story to sisters had waited a very long time to hear. coming up. 99. 99%. this just confirmed. when dateline continues.
when i look at the email, i just could not even believe it. i looked at it for about three times. am i really seeing this? it was a woman, claiming to be the biological mother of both pepper and rene, claiming to be the woman who, according to shirley and barbara, was a child abandoning, drug adult prostitute, probably dead. could this woman really be their mother? hardly a claim she could take on simple faith. i asked her to come in to see me the very next day, which she was very anxious and happy to do. i asked her to bring whatever evidence she had. and in that meeting, the woman presented her evidence. she brought some photos that she had. photos of pepper and rene, when they were very little. she told her she had been a waitress when the girls were little, had a photo of that as well, and a picture of shirley,
Up every finding the answer, here it was. a copy of her birth certificate. with her real name. in black and white. rhonda patricia christie. and there were the names of her parents, to. robert and barbara christie. is it, it oh. i was like whoa, they are my parents. bobby and bob. they were my parents. with their names and social security numbers, rhonda and her friend struck down a phone number in ohio. she dal the number. a man answered. it was june 5th, 2010. i said, are you robert dean christie. he said yes. i said are you married to a rubber barbara blackwell. or or were you married, because i did. no he said yes. i said, i think i m rhonda christie. or do you know rhonda crisper trisha christie? and then there was a long pause. this is who she was talking to. his name is bob christie. i almost dropped the phone. she knew i hesitated and she said this is your daughter rhonda. and there was something that