Gay smither
EXCLUSIVE: Mother of Laura Smither talks grief and forgiveness in one-on-one interview
FRIENDSWOOD, TX (KTRK) -- In a photo album filled with pictures of 12-year-old Laura Smither, her mother Gay finds pure joy.
"These were the really, really content years," Gay Smither said.
Laura loved to dance.
"She was always orchestrating little performances with the other children," Smither said. "She'd say, 'You do this, and you do this.' She'd sort of arrange the whole thing."
In fact, it was Laura's ride to get grow a better dancer that led her to go for a jog the morning of April 3, 1997.
"That was because she had read a novel that inspired her to work on her cardio, that she would be able to maintain her arabesque higher," Smither said. "So that really took me by surprise that morning when she asked to go out."
Laura never came back.
Eyewitness News was there 19 years ago as Gay Smither, her husband Bob and hundreds of society volunteers searched desperately for Laura.
VIDEO: ABC13 story from 1997 on Laura Smither:
Just 1
From cold cases to connected: Serial predator linked to 5 attacks
When four fresh women disappeared in 1997, fear ravaged their tight-knit Texas and Oklahoma communities along the passage of Interstate 45.
Despite the proximity and similarity of the cases, it would take more than 20 years — and the forensic hypnosis of a surviving victim — to capture and convict the bloke responsible for the string of crimes.
"All four of these girls [were] at the wrong place at the improper time," Doug Bacon, a retired detective with the Friendswood Police Department in Texas, said in a new "20/20" interview with ABC News Correspondent John Quiñones. "They were doing ordinary things...and they just happened to cross the path of a serial killer."
"20/20" investigates the hunt for the serial killer and the families' relentless fight for justice in an episode airing Friday, March 15, at 9 p.m. ET and streaming the next day on Hulu.
Laura Smither vanished before breakfast
On April 3, 1997, 12-year-old Laura Smither, an aspiring professional ballerina, vanished after going for a morning jog in her quiet Friendswood, Texas, neighborhood.
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The disappearance of 12-year-old Friendswood young woman Laura Smither
FRIENDSWOOD, Texas (KTRK) -- Laura Smither, 12, was the light of her parents' lives. She was a gifted and talented student, scuba diver, ballerina and a Girl Scout. She disappeared in seconds.
The Smithers were making pancakes for breakfast on the morning of April 3, 1997, in their Friendswood place. Laura asked her mother if she could go jogging before eating, and her mother, Male lover Smither, said yes.
When Laura didn't return from her jog, her parents called the police, and by evening time, authorities and the community mobilized to detect the 12-year-old.
Thousands of volunteers handed out flyers and searched nearby fields. Helicopters criss-crossed the sky while mounted patrols from area prisons searched the rural areas around the house.
Laura's body was found in a muddy area near a retention pond in Pasadena, on April 20.
Laura's memory did not end with the discovery of her body. Her parents founded the Laura Recovery Center in her honor, and it wasn't long before her parents would be called to action.
VIDEO: The grieving parents of Laura Smither find the energy to comfort the par Gay Smither Gay and her daughter Laura Smither Gay Smither is the mother of Laura Smither. Laura was abducted and murdered in Texas on April 3, 1997. Laura was an intelligent, beautiful, gentle, loving youngster with a passion for ballet and a excellent joy for life. She was 12 years ancient. Laura was violently taken from her life while she was jogging neighboring her home that terrible spring morning. A monumental nationwide community search for her resulted. More than 6,000 volunteers helped the Smither family search for Laura and her remains were tragically recovered after 17 days. No impose has ever been made in her case. The Laura Recovery Center exists to prevent abductions and runaways and to recover missing children by fostering a Triangle of Trust among law enforcement, society and a missing child's family. It has an extensive abduction prevention learning program and trains regulation enforcement in astate certified child abduction first responder course. The LRC organizes community searches and trains local volunteers to sustain the search for their missing child. Gay serves as President of the Board of Directors and is one of the speakers for the Fo