Page 56 - Veritas - 02.03.22
P. 56
She only had $100, with which she needed to buy household items, some
clothes and travel to the airport. Furthermore, she didn’t have any more
money to buy new clothes for Cherish’s trip. At this time, Cherish took a
little white dress with red hearts on it. She realized that she couldn’t
afford it, so she put back the selected dress.
A man was watching every move of Rayne and her daughters. The man
was waiting outside the store and struck up a conversation with Rayne
when she came out. He said that he was waiting for his wife and claimed
that they had a gift card for Walmart and that it would be helpful for
Rayne to buy new clothes for her children. The man who was named
Don introduced himself to Rayne. After some time, he said, “You can meet
my wife at Walmart.” At that time, it started to rain, so Rayne thought
about whether she could walk in the rain or take a lift from Don to get to
Walmart and buy some clothes using the gift card.
Rayne was a little hesitant, but later she agreed to the lift. Rayne and her
three daughters got into a white van, and they arrived at Walmart. Rayne
went into Walmart with her three children, and she started shopping for
the clothes for Cherish, meanwhile Don, the old man was waiting
outside. Later, he joined her, and he added a bundle of rope to the cart. He
had a different intention for Cherish. Don told Rayne that he would get
some cheeseburgers from McDonald’s. While going, Cherish also went
with him. Rayne thought that McDonald’s was inside Walmart, so she
was fine with that. After 20 minutes, Rayne began to worry and Walmart
announced that they were going to close the store soon. There was no
sign of Don, his wife, or Cherish. She searched the whole store and car
parking. At 11:20 PM, she called 911, as she didn’t know much about Don.
She described to the police whatever she knew about him. Then the
police came to know he was a familiar criminal. Don, a.k.a Donald Smith,
was 61 years old and a sex offender with offences from the 70s. He had
been released from jail three weeks before. The police didn’t search for
