A major reconfiguration of Sequim elementary schools, a teen singing sensation heard ‘round the World (Series), the loss of Hurricane Ridge’s day lodge to fire, Clallam County’s first Poet Laureate, the story of local sports icon Joe Rantz finally hits the big screen, and the shocking loss of firefighter/coach Charles (“Chad”) Cate were some of the news stories that made headlines in 2023.
Between the backstory, the Ernest Batchelder fountain, local architectural prestige, and dramatic living spaces, it's hard to pick one headline for this home.
And also a photo of a man she said was the girl s father, long since dead. she said her name was jeri. i asked her immediately, jeri, would you be willing to do a dna test? she said, i will take the dna test, but these are my children i know it. she put the dna test on a fast track and waited, and within a week, called pepper and running to her office, to here in person, the results of the test. 99. 99% probability. confirmed? that means it is confirmed. wow, i cannot believe this is actually happening, i can t. how soon could they meet jeri, the sisters wanted to know. what was she like? how did she know shirley? we arranged a reunion for the next day. jeri arrived first and told us how she saw her long lost girls on our program. i saw the picture of shirley, and went crazy, hysterical. because i knew that who she was. and then i saw the girls. i knew that they were mine.
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.
Her memory. and then her long lost birth mother, to discover that renee was her actual sister. and now to learn she had a brother. raymond leonard smith junior is what jerry called him before he too was snatched away. abducted by the babysitter, shirley. where was he now? jeri gave us a copy of his birth certificate. he d be just about 40. now and our chances of finding, it seemed frankly, slim. we called 40 year old ray smith all over the country. there was a ray smith in colorado, ray with a maryland, in new jersey, and kansas. but did he go by the name ray smith? and then, a coal back. it was the ray smith from colorado. we had the right name, the right age, place of birth.